One Memory
by NikitaDreams
Summary: How do you reclaim your life one lost memory at a time? A look at Letty after the 6th movie as she learns to get her life and family back, and remembers who she is.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Guys what am I doing? I have two other series already. But like… people wanted some London aftermath moments. And I really want to explore Letty getting back her memories. So this is a series of stand-alone sort of scenes I'm doing in which she remembers one thing/event/person what have you in each short. It takes place starting where the 6th film left off. So if you haven't seen it yet, there may be some spoilers. Also I plan to address important memories, things from the films, but if there's anything particular you'd like to see, please let me know in reviews. Thanks for reading!

_A Beach Trip_

Living the life of a woman she couldn't remember being was easier said than done. Of course she had plenty of support. Her family was more than understanding. They didn't push her. Even though she sometimes suspected they were nearly as frustrated by her lack of memory as she was. Especially Dom. She still had trouble imagining why he could love her so much. Why he'd even been willing to do something as insane as leap from a moving vehicle off a bridge on the off-chance he might save her and that they might both live through it. She'd given him nothing to deserve that. Of course, he told her she had. She just didn't remember.

The doctors had told her there was a chance she'd never get her memory back. She'd gotten used to not having a past. But with Shaw and his crew it had been easier. They hadn't known her before. Hadn't shared a life with her. They also hadn't given a shit about her. If the trade-off for being loved was being frustrated by her own lack of remembering now and then, she could deal.

She was already learning to love them again. They made it so easy. Made her feel like she was home.

Today she had been sitting out on the back porch alone with her thoughts when Mia found her.

"Hey," she said, hugging a wide leather-bound book against her chest. "I found these. Thought you might like to see them."

She passed over the book and Letty opened it to reveal pages of photographs. Mia sat down beside her and they shifted the album between them.

"These are pretty old," Letty commented, looking at the beginning of the book.

Here an unfamiliar man and woman stood in the same yard they were in now. The photos were faded with age. The man had his arm around the woman – who looked quite a bit like Mia. A little boy was playing in the background.

"Your parents?" she asked.

"Yeah. Right after they first moved into this house." Mia grinned. "I first showed you these pictures just to embarrass my brother."

"Of course you did," Letty replied, laughing as they flipped through photos of young Dom; hamming it up for the camera, working on cars with his father, playing in the sprinkler with a tiny Mia. The years seemed to unfold with the passage of happy memories.

Then one year their mother disappeared from the images. Mr. Toretto looked a little sadder.

"Your Mom died?" she asked.

"She got sick," Mia explained with a nod. "When I was only about eight years old. It was rough for a while."

Another boy started to show up in the pictures, always with Dom. There was something familiar about his blue eyes and shit-eating grin. She lingered over a photo of them sitting in the stands at a race track. Then she looked at Mia.

"Vince?" she asked.

Mia's eyes widened. "You remember him?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Dom mentioned him… said that he-"

"Died in Rio," Mia confirmed, tears in her eyes. "He was always around. So you knew him as long as you knew us."

"Something about his face seems familiar."

"That's something. You guys were friends. You always called him out on his bullshit."

Mia flipped a few pages ahead to another picture. Here it was the four of them, sitting those same stands. Her in Dom's lap, Vince to his left with his arm around Mia. They were all dressed for the California summer and grinning for the camera.

"I look so damn young," Letty muttered, wishing she had the memory to go along with the image.

"It was the weekend of your sixteenth birthday," Mia offered. "We went to watch my Dad race and he took us all out to dinner. It was a great weekend."

"I bet," she agreed, flipping away from the picture. She looked at Mia. "What if I never remember?"

"You will," Mia insisted. "You said some things are seeming familiar already, right?"

"A little…"

"We're family," Mia continued. "We'll support you. You know that."

"I know."

Mia stood. "I'm gonna get started on dinner. You can keep the album. Look through the rest of it."

"I will, thanks." Letty watched her friend go and then looked back at the book lying open in her lap.

There was a picture of her and Mia at the beach in their swimsuits, hair wet. Mia was grinning widely and Letty was rolling her eyes at someone off camera, her arms crossed over her chest. She slammed the book closed with a frown; her gaze drifting to the sky where she could see that the sun was setting, making the sky glow pink and orange.

The air smelled like smog and grass and car fumes, but she could remember, suddenly, sharply, the smell of the ocean and salt and the hot sand under her feet. She remembered they spent the day at the beach, just the four of them. They tossed the Frisbee around in the sand until they were sweating under the LA sun and ran for the water. She remembered how Dom pulled her close and kissed her right before a wave washed over their heads. Mia had laughed at them hysterically.

She remembered how her friend had grabbed her at the shore and insisted Dom take a picture. Vince had commented that the picture would be better if they'd kissed. She'd punched him in the shoulder right after Dom snapped the photo.

Her eyes flew open, wide suddenly. It was just a little thing, just one day in the hundreds… thousands of days of her life. But it was _hers _and she remembered. Tears sprung up in her eyes and she quickly dashed them away.

She was still sitting there in stunned silence when the door creaked open. She didn't move or look up until Dom sat down beside her, put his arm around her. She leaned into him, the motion instinctive. She felt safe with him. She reached up to lace her fingers with his, quiet for a long moment and he let her be.

Then she turned and looked at him. "I remember… something." She breathed it out slowly, tasting the words on her tongue. If she remembered one thing she could remember more, after all. It meant that her mind wasn't broken, her memories weren't lost forever. "Not something really important… but it's a start."

He smiled at her, pressing his lips against her temple.

"You'll remember more. And it's all important. Maybe it doesn't seem like you're remembering a life-changing moment. Maybe it's just a normal day. But it's still your memory. Your life. Every part of that is important."

"Even the things I'm gonna remember that will piss me off?" she asked.

"Even those. Though I am sure I'll be on the receiving end of your anger in some cases," Dom replied.

"I guess we'll find out," she said with a smile. "C'mon. I can smell Mia's cooking. I'm starving." She stood and he followed her back inside with a laugh.

"Some things never change."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Well thanks for all the favorites, follows and the reviews I've gotten so far guys! I'm glad there's interest in this story, because I'm really interested in writing for it. In case you haven't noticed. I'm also still working on my other stuff, I promise. Special thanks to Karikocha for her help on this one! Enjoy all!

_Nightmare_

It was a hot summer night in LA so sleep hadn't come easy and when she finally dropped off it was to fitful dreams and nightmares.

_It was a chilly night and though she stood with several other drivers under the cool wash of the moon she felt alone as she leaned against her car. The desert stretched out around them, isolating them from civilization. What a nice place it would be to dispose of bodies._

_She'd been on edge the whole time, if she were to be perfectly honest. She didn't trust these guys, she didn't trust Braga. Brian had warned her not to, but she wasn't stupid. She knew that what she was doing was dangerous. _

_She lingered in the back, her fingers clenching slightly in agitation. It was impossible for her to miss when one of Braga's men pulled a gun, when he raised it, and shot at one of the drivers. Right in the head. He went down like a pile of bricks. Letty was already moving. She shoved at the guy in front of her, skirted around her car and slipped into the driver's side as fast as she could._

_She had to get the hell out of there. She had to get back to O'Connor. Braga wasn't stupid. He was killing all his drivers. That was why there was no one to tie to him. That was why the FBI couldn't get someone on the inside._

_She could feel her heart pounding in her throat as she pulled off the hard-packed earth onto the road, tires squealing on the pavement. She saw the bright flash of headlights in her rearview mirror, the dark shape of the Gran Torino. Cursing she shifted the car into a higher gear and sped up the road, trying to keep ahead of the other vehicle._

_A turn in the road up ahead, she was sweating, panic creeping up her back and locking her muscles. The other car was coming up alongside her as she went around the curve and with a yank of the wheel it was ramming into her. _

_The car went flying, flipping and rolling down the road in a blur of pain, glass and blood. She squeezed her eyes shut, then slowly opened them when she came to a stop. Her body was full of pain. There was blood on her face, the taste of it on her lips. Breathing was a struggle and her lung burned. She slid out of the chair, hands going to the top of the car, fingers cutting against the broken glass as she coughed, struggling to breathe and pull herself free from the wreckage. Upside-down she half-fell, half-crawled out of the window._

_The other car had come to a stop, lights on, idling on the road. She bit back a groan, gritting her teeth as she dragged herself from the car._

_She would not die here, she would not die here._

_She was going to see her family again. She was going to see Dom again._

_This was not going to be her end._

_Her head was pounding and she was sure that her leg was broken, but she stared at the man who was walking towards her with murder in her eyes. He smiled, held up a gun._

_This was not going to be her end._

_She dragged herself towards him, struggling to push herself up, stared him in the eye._

_He stopped smiling._

_He aimed the gun at the car and fired._

_The car exploded behind her in a wash of heat, she had the brief, sudden sensation of being airborne, and then blackness._

Letty startled awake, gasping into the darkness of her bedroom. Her breathing was the only sound for a long moment, and the faint flutter of the curtains at the open window. She took a moment to compose herself, looking around the bedroom.

It was Mia who'd suggested she have her own space at first, understanding that she couldn't remember and wouldn't just fall back into being the Letty that they'd known before. She had appreciated it, though at times she felt guilty for needing to be apart from them now and again.

The space was basic; a bed, dresser and a nightstand. Mia had framed pictures and put them on the walls. There was a stack of magazines about cars on the nightstand and her dirty clothes from the night before were still scattered on the floor.

Letty climbed out of the bed, kicking away the sheets that tangled around her bare legs. She wore only a pair of navy blue cotton underwear so she fished in the dresser for a white tank top, tugging it on as she tied her hair back.

The edges of the nightmare were still buzzing at her mind.

Not a dream… a memory. The start of when she'd lost everything. That man who couldn't shoot her, but had destroyed her life just as well by not doing so.

She clenched her hand into a fist, slipping out into the hallway. She moved quietly, though Dom's room was only the next door over. She turned the handle and pushed the door open slowly. The window was open and the moon shone through. She could see the shape of him, sprawled face-down on the big bed as she eased the door shut at her back and leaned against it.

The overhead fan was circulating but she thought she would mention they ought to get some window units for the old house. The LA summers were too hot to be living without central air.

He turned his head slightly and blinked at her with sleepy eyes.

"Letty?" he murmured, rubbing a hand over his face and sitting up. He was bare to the waist down where the white sheets were tugged across his lap. She couldn't help but wonder if he was wearing anything to bed.

Her lips quirked slightly. "Hey."

"Bad dream?" he asked. "Or a good one?"

She tucked her tongue into her cheek and looked away. "Bad memory," she muttered.

"C'mere and tell me," he beckoned, holding out his hand.

She went to him, slipping her hand into his and letting him tug her down next to him on the bed. His arm around her waist was comforting and she leaned her head into his shoulder, nose pressed into his bare skin. His hand came up to tangle in her hair.

"I remembered the crash," she breathed. "How I lost my memory."

"Braga's guys," he supplied.

"Yeah." She lifted her head, watching the spinning of the fan blades above them. "I remembered the moment when I realized that they were going to kill us. I remember thinking… I had to get out of there." She laughed briefly, and it was humorless. "I didn't want to die."

His arm tightened around her but Dom said nothing, just let her keep speaking.

"And even after my car crashed and I couldn't even walk I just remember that I didn't want to die. I didn't want that to be how my life ended. I was pissed off about it."

He chuckled softly. "That sounds like you."

"But he couldn't shoot me," she murmured.

"He said he didn't remember you," Dom replied softly, his fingers rubbing lines of tension in her neck until she sagged against him.

She glanced at him, curiosity in her gaze.

"Fenix. That was his name. Drove a green Gran Torino. Worked for Braga."

"You found him?"

"I killed him," he answered.

She fell still and silent, her eyes dark on his face. She brought up her hand to trace her fingertips against his cheek, wondering if she's done this before, how many times she's done it. How many times she'd touched this man, how many years she'd loved him and if it's woven its way into her bones and blood and that's why she can still feel it.

She didn't say anything and he didn't either. She just burrowed her face against his throat and he wrapped his arms around her and held on. And it's too hot out to be comfortable. Sweat is trickling a line down her back and making her shirt between them damp, but she doesn't want to let go. She wants to hold onto the solace that she finds when he holds her close. Whenever they're together and he reaches for her. Like he's trying to assure himself that she's really there, and like she's trying to find an anchor for the big empty ocean that is her life.

But this isn't the first thing she's remembered and it won't be the last. She'll rebuild her past one puzzle piece at a time. But that won't mean she has to stop living in the present.

Dom stretched back on the bed, his arm curled around her where she's sprawled atop him and she turned her head to rest it against his chest. She can hear the comforting beat of his heart and it drowns out that horrible fear that lingers from the nightmare.

She is safe. She is alive.

That wasn't her end.

She closes her eyes with a small smile. It's only the beginning.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: You guys wanted a sexier, more intimate memory/moment. I think at this point you can assume Letty has remembered a bit of her past. Not really going in order necessarily. Also don't hurt me for where I ended this :X. Use your imaginations. Some stronger language and sexual situations this chapter, so if you don't like that you can skip it. Rating raised accordingly.

_This Garage_

It had been the garage that had sparked the latest memory.

The place had been abandoned since the last time they'd all been there, left untended for years and repossessed by the city along with the house when Mia had left the country a wanted criminal. It had been a wreck, dirty and dusty with broken windows, tools and spare parts left to rust until they were useless.

It hadn't been too hard to reclaim the lease on the place. And everyone had pitched in to help clean it up, hauling junk out to the dump, replacing the windows and sweeping away the layer of grime. A fresh coat of paint inside and out and it almost looked like new.

Mia had stenciled the name of the place in bold red letters against the white bricks and they'd opened for business.

It hadn't taken long to get busy. They still had a reputation in LA, no matter how many years they'd been gone. No matter that the racing scene was a whole new generation of kids. Their parents and brothers, sisters and friends knew the name Toretto and so did they.

It felt familiar to her in the way that she felt comfortable there. She knew cars; she remembered how to work on them, as if it had been such an innate part of her even brain damage hadn't been able to take it away. Like it hadn't been able to take away driving from her.

But there was something about _this _garage in particular. She knew, without even asking, without the others telling her, that she'd spent a lot of time within these walls. She just didn't remember particulars.

Until one day it was just her, Brian and Dom working into the afternoon. The work was steady but it wasn't too busy, nothing they had to rush on. She had just finished an oil change on a Nissan and was wiping off her hands on a dirty rag when her mind drifted.

_Those same hands, grease under her short fingernails, splayed against Dom's chest, following the line of sweat down his body, over those muscles, bronze skin that she wanted to taste with her tongue, press her lips against. His hands, so much bigger than hers, tracing a path down her back, curving against her backside and squeezing as he lifted her. As easily as if she weighed nothing. There's something about his strength that thrills her. Something about feeling safe in his arms. Even though he knows she can take care of herself._

_She tastes the heat of his breath in her mouth and their lips and noses graze just before he kisses her, or she kisses him. Her teeth scrape his lower lip and she tastes him with her tongue and she's addicted to the way he tastes. Even though she's kissed him hundreds of times she keeps on wanting to kiss him, keeps on wanting to breathe him in._

_She doesn't want to pull away but she needs to breathe and she's panting as he presses her against the hood of the car. It's his car. And though they've fucked on other cars she knows he likes it best when it's his vehicle she's laid out on. She tightens her thighs around his hips, pressing herself against him until he moans and drops his head, her name a murmur of his lips against her skin. He thrusts his hips against hers and the friction makes her ache for more, head falling back so that her dark hair trails across the hood of the car._

"Letty?"

She is startled out of the memory by Brian's voice and she stares at him with wide eyes, her cheeks flushed and her hand gripping tightly to the rag she still holds. She feels far too hot and she swallows, her gaze sliding away from Brian towards Dom who is watching her from across the garage where he'd been working under the hood of a car.

"Are you okay?" Brian asked.

She turned her attention back to him, letting out a slow breath. She gave him a smile. "Fine."

Her gaze moved to the clock on the wall and then back to Brian. "We're almost done here for the day, Brian. Why don't you leave early?"

He looked surprised. "You sure?" He looked over at Dom. "You mind?"

"Go ahead," Dom agreed, turning his attention back to the car he was working on.

"Thanks guys. Mia will be glad to eat earlier than usual." Without waiting around to see if they'd take it back Brian grabbed his stuff and took off.

Letty stood where she was until she heard his car driving away, then tossed aside the rag she'd been holding. She crossed the garage with a purpose in her step, her eyes dark. Dom looked over at her, closing the hood of the car slowly.

"You look like some kind of jungle cat going after her prey," he chuckled. "Why'd you really send him home?"

"Because I don't want to give him a free show," she fairly purred, baring her teeth.

She hitched herself up atop the car, a black and green classic Mustang. She knows it belongs to some middle-aged white man who thinks he looks cool driving it around.

Dom was watching her, his face half in shadow and his dark eyes almost unreadable, but he'd discarded the wrench that was in his hand and he moved to stand in front of her. His hands framed her face and she remembered London when he told her that he'd come for her. She smiled and reached out to trace her hands down the broad spread of his chest. The grey tank top he wore was stained with grease and his coveralls were tied at the waist. She tangled her fingers with the knot of the sleeves, smiling up at him with lidded eyes like she had a secret.

"I remember," she murmured, yanking the tie loose and grinning at the way his breath shudders out of him, the intense look in his eyes. "This garage."

Her fingers glided up under his shirt, tracing the muscles there and his smooth skin as his hands fell upon her hips, fingers digging into the flesh of her ass to draw her closer. She trapped him between her thighs as she tugged the shirt up and he was forced to let her go to lift his arms. He tossed it to the ground, leaning in to claim her lips with his and she breathed his name into his mouth.

She's kissed him before since London. She's touched him, fucked him, loved him. But every memory she reclaims is rebuilding all the layers to Dom and Letty, reminding her _why _she loves him. How she's loved him. She _knows _she's a woman who takes what she wants, but it's nice to remember that she's always been that woman. To remember the strong man who lets her be aggressive. To remember that she's strong enough not to always be. To sometimes bend.

When they pull apart she's panting for air and reaching for the hem of her own shirt, eager to be rid of all the barriers between them. Dom's lips trace a path down her throat to her breasts, tongue following the line of the black bra she wears.

"Show me what else you remember," he murmurs against her skin and she smiles.

She pulls him closer and she does.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Okay I wanted to write this one for everyone who is a fan of the Brian and Letty friendship. There's a little humor with the rest of the team here too. I wanted to do another light chapter because the next one I have planned is going to be a bit rough. Hang in there with me guys!

_Friendship_

There was a barbeque every Sunday, just like there always was. Dom had told her how his dad had started the tradition, and he'd always kept it up when he could. It always gathered everyone together, no matter what they were doing, where they were.

This week she'd volunteered to make the beer run, and she was loading the cases of Corona into her trunk when the memory drifted into her mind.

_A narrow balcony off the upstairs of an old house in central LA that someone had converted into an apartment. She had a cold beer in her hand and she was leaning against the rusted metal railing. The door slid closed behind her as Brian stepped out, sprawling in one of the old patio chairs. He looked tired, and ridiculous in that suit he wore, but he'd just gotten off work and agreed to meet with her._

"_So can you get me the deal?" she asked._

"_I can. But I'm still not sure about this, Letty. Braga's a dangerous man."_

"_You let me worry about that. I can handle myself, O'Connor."_

"_I don't doubt it," he agreed, grinning at her. "You're a tough lady."_

She remembered that they'd stayed out half the night on that crappy old balcony, talking about anything and everything. The last five years. She couldn't remember exactly what she'd said, or what he'd said, but she could remember that she trusted him. That he'd been a friend to her when she'd needed one.

Closing the trunk Letty thought about the guilt in Brian's eyes after they'd gotten her away from Shaw. She remembered he'd taken the blame for what happened. But _she _was the one who went to him with the idea. She was the one who insisted she could do it. No one could make her do anything she didn't want to do.

She drove back to the house and pulled into the driveway. By chance it was Brian who strolled down to help her unload the car.

"Hope you remember they only drink Coronas around here," he said.

She laughed. "If I had then I'd have been reminded a dozen times anyway." She passed him a case, then hesitated. "Hey… Brian?"

He looked at her. "What's up?"

"The last time I was here in LA…. We spent a lot of time together huh?"

Brian looked surprised, then smiled. "I guess so. You remember?"

"Some," she agreed, reaching up to shut the trunk. "I remember your crappy ass apartment."

"That's exactly what you said when you first saw it. I was like, gimme a break. The FBI doesn't pay that well and LA isn't cheap to live in."

"The true reason why you went criminal comes out," she said with a grin.

"Very funny," Brian deadpanned, walking up the long driveway with her. "I'll have you know my record is totally clean."

"Imagine that," she replied, pausing at the top of the drive before they could join the others in the yard. "But in all seriousness… I need you to stop feeling guilty about what happened to me. It wasn't your fault. I'd have gone to someone else in the FBI if you'd told me no."

"You threatened to," he admitted.

"See?" She laughed. "I'm a stubborn bitch." She shook her head. "At least you gave a shit about me. Some other agent would have just used me and not cared."

"It's not that… Letty," Brian sighed. "Our intel should have been better. We lost a lot of people because we didn't see the writing on the wall. Braga was killing people and you weren't properly prepared. You shouldn't have gone in there alone."

"It's said and done, Brian. You can't change it." She reached over to rest hand on his arm. "And everything worked out. I lived and I'm getting my life back. You have Mia and Jack."

He put his free arm around her shoulders. "Yeah, life is good huh?"

"If we want it to stay good we better get this beer in the fridge," she laughed, ducking away to head towards the back door.

Mia pushed it open for her, a smile on her face. She was holding Jack on her hip. "You two have a nice talk?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Letty replied, tickling the baby's little foot before she moved to the fridge to load the beer into it. "Just starting to remember some more things."

"Brian mentioned that you and he spent a lot of time together when you came back to LA from the Dominican Republic. I had been totally clueless."

Letty looked over at her friend, then wrinkled her nose. "It wasn't like that."

"Oh please," Mia laughed. "I know. I didn't mean that. I just… wish you'd told me what was going on."

"I can't tell you why I didn't," Letty murmured, shrugging her shoulders.

"Because of me," Brian put in, appearing at the door. "Mia and I hadn't talked in… years. We didn't really know how she'd react to seeing me again. I guess I was hoping that if it all worked out… then I could be a part of her life again when Dom came back home."

"Didn't quite work out that way," Mia said, but she was smiling up at her husband.

"Worked out anyway," Brian replied, putting his arm around her.

"You two are so adorable I might barf," Letty said, moving around them to the door. "Want me to take Jack?"

Mia smiled, passing over the baby. "Yeah, thanks," she turned back to Brian, wrapping her arms around him.

Letty left them there, carrying Jack outside where Dom was sitting at the table with Roman and Tej. They looked over at her, Roman surveying her and little Jack.

"What are you practicing?"

"Hell no. Shut your big mouth," she batted at his shoulder half-heartedly and he ducked out of the way, laughing.

"Where's Brian and Mia?" Dom asked.

"Just taking a moment alone, let them be." She smiled, leaning down to kiss him.

"Clearly he knows how to do that or they wouldn't have a kid," Roman muttered.

They shared a laugh as she settled down at the table with them, Jack grabbing ahold of her arm to stand up in her lap. Roman went back to telling his latest tales of conquest that they all rolled their eyes over and teased him about. It wasn't too long before the back door swung open and Brian and Mia walked out, hand in hand. Letty smiled at them as they approached.

It had worked out, no matter what bumps they'd hit along the way.

"Hey, you couldn't even bring me a cold beer?" Roman complained. "What the hell were you doing in there?"


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Okay so I've been wanting to write this one since I came up with the idea for this series. It involves Letty remembering waking up alone in the DR, so it's definitely not the happiest scene for them. I also wanted to touch on the relationship between Letty and Mia, as I believe that Letty would have vented about all of this to Mia when she first came back home to LA after Dom left. There's not a real resolution at the end of this scene as I thought it would have been too much for one chapter. I promise I'll do the conversation between her and Dom in the aftermath.

When You Left Me Alone

"_I don't want you around when they catch up to me."_

…

"_Ride or die…. Remember?"_

…

_When she wakes up she knows she's alone immediately. The sun is shining through the window and it's going to be another beautiful day in the Dominican Republic. The sunlight catches in the silver of the cross, draws her gaze. She sees the stack of money there and her heart sinks in her throat. _

_She knows Dom is gone before she even sits up and turns to look at the empty half of the bed. His stuff is gone. He's left._

_She wants to cry but she really hates that she wants to. She's pissed off but she's also incredibly disappointed. A part of her knows why he thinks he did it. But the rest of her resents him for it._

When Letty sits up in bed this time she's not alone. She's in the room she shares with Dom, back home in LA. So many of her memories have come back to her, but there's still whole chunks of her life missing. Now she's remembered something that's left her feeling like she has another hole, hollowing out her heart until it hurts so much she wants to curl up on herself and cry.

She stares at Dom's sleeping face. They've talked about this. Of course, he told her that he left her in the DR. He told her that he did it to protect her. She accepted that, as she accepted most of what he'd told her about their past. But in reality there was so much more to it than that.

He _did _leave her to protect her. But she didn't want him to. She would have rather spent a lifetime in danger at his side, then have to be apart from him and safe.

That's why she'd gone to Brian.

That's why she'd gone after Braga and his thugs. That's why she'd nearly died. That's why she'd lost her memories. All of it…

All of it is because Dom wouldn't listen to her.

And she knows she's already spent weeks and months pissed off at him over it. She knows herself too well to think she'd have just let it go so easily.

But he wasn't around to be mad at. And then she wasn't mad because she forgot.

She's mad now.

She's mad and he's here to deal with it now.

He stirs when she climbs out of bed, and he's looking at her in confusion as she tugs on her jeans, her movements sharp with anger. He sits up as she pulls on her boots.

"Letty? It's the middle of the night. Where you goin?"

She stares at him. "Too bad I couldn't wake up in the DR to ask you that s_ame _question, Dominic." She snaps his name and the fury in her husky voice is the same as it's always been whenever they've fought.

Dom rubs a hand over his face, brushing away the last of his sleepiness. "Can we talk about this?"

"I don't want to talk to you right now," she replies, grabbing her leather jacket from the chair where she tossed it earlier. "I'm too mad at you."

"Letty come on it was years ago," he mumbles.

"I _know _that, but I'm mad now. And you're going to deal with it. Because you didn't have to deal with it then." She grabs her keys from the dresser and she's out the door and down the stairs before she can hear him call her name again.

She stalks to her car and yanks open the door, sliding in behind the wheel. She guns the engine and is down the block and driving before she really knows where the hell she's going. And she keeps driving because she knows that her memories will take her where she wants to go, where she goes when she just wants to get away.

She knows all the roads in LA because driving was burnt into her muscle memory before she actually started to remember the city with all its sprawl, winding side-roads and long straight stretches. She knows what parts to avoid during rush hour and she knows the fastest way to get anywhere.

She drives nearly a half hour outside the city, pulls her car off into a grassy lot overlooking the beach. She sits there a moment, then opens the door and climbs out. Takes in lungfuls of sea air and stares out at the ocean crashing into the rocky shore. She crosses her arms over her chest, tugging her jacket closed against the cool air coming off the water, leans back against the hood of her car.

She's hardly surprised when she hears the approach of an engine. But she _is _surprised when she turns her head to see Mia's car rolling up beside hers. The other woman gets out, still wearing pajama pants and a t-shirt, which she's tugged an oversized fleece over. She almost feels guilty that Mia got out of bed to come after her, then she decides to blame it on Dom instead.

Mia doesn't say anything, just comes to stand beside her, looking out at the ocean, leaning back against the hood of the car.

"You were mad at him when you first came back to LA, you know," she finally said, turning her head to look at her.

"I'm guessing you suffered from the brunt of that?" Letty asked.

"Not really. You weren't pissed at me." Mia laughed. "I love my brother, but him making you mad wasn't anything new. And me being the one to listen wasn't either."

Letty swallowed, looking away, back over at the ocean. "He left while I was sleeping, Mia. What the hell is that shit?"

"Because he couldn't leave you while you were awake," Mia explained. "Because he wouldn't have been… strong enough." At Letty's disbelieving look she laughed. "He couldn't say no to you."

"Pretty sure he's said 'no' to me plenty of times," she muttered.

"He _wanted _to be with you, Letty. It wasn't like it was easy for him to leave. He thought he was doing the right thing."

"How come I didn't get a say?"

"Because he's an idiot," Mia said, smiling at her. "He has a problem where he _always _thinks he knows what's best for everyone else. It's been something that's really hard to break him of."

Letty didn't say anything in response. She couldn't say anything because she was conflicted and she didn't know if Mia had said these words to her before or how she got over it before. How she worked through being pissed off to getting determined to bring him home.

"He suffered for it, you know," Mia murmured, looking at her with serious, dark eyes. "After we thought you died there was nothing we could do to pull Dom out of it. He went on this… revenge bender and I swear to god he was trying to get himself killed, Letty." She lifted her own gaze to stare out at the ocean, her eyes damp. "And after Brian told him that you'd died because you were trying to bring him home. The guilt he felt was incredible."

She couldn't find the words to respond, though she knew some of what Mia was telling her already. She'd known it from the second Dom had saved her from that tank. He'd been willing to die for her right there. He hadn't wanted to live without her.

"It was Brian and me who really forced him to keep going," Mia said. "And especially after I told him about the baby. But he wasn't the same."

Letty looked over at her friend, silent. She knew that Dom had been through hell after he'd thought she was dead. He'd told her himself. He hadn't really said that he'd wanted to die, but she'd been able to put it all together.

"I don't know if you remember how wrecked he was after Dad died," Mia added. "But it was worse than that."

Letty gazed out over the water. She did remember. She remembered how he'd shown up on her doorstep, blood on his shirt and on his hands and he'd told her what he'd done. How she'd held onto him and let him cry until the cops showed up and took him away. She remembered the hell it was for her with him locked up, watching him change through the safety glass of the prison visitors center every week. His eyes harder and his body bigger.

She pressed her lips together. "I remember," she murmured.

"I'm not telling you it was right for him to leave you there in the Dominican. I'm not telling you he wasn't an idiot about it, and that you didn't have every right to be angry about it. But you forgave him then, and you'll forgive him again. And right now you should come home." Mia tugged at the sleeve of her jacket gently, tilting her head with a smile. "Come on."

Letty sighed, but stood. "I'm still mad at him."

"Be mad at him." Mia agreed. "But come home and talk to him." She smiled then suddenly. "I'll race you." She yanked open the door to her car and was in the driver's seat and fastening her seat belt before Letty registered the challenge.

Then she grinned back. "I'm going to kick your ass," she taunted as she slid into the driver's seat of her own car, throwing it into drive as she spun the wheel.

Mia's laughter and hers echoed down the beach road into the night, nearly hidden under the growl of their engines. She's still mad at Dom, but she still loves him. Nothing can keep her from going home, and remembering how to forgive him again.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Hey guys I got a new job so I may be a bit slower updating my various fics. Also I'd really like to know what memories of Letty's you'd like to see. This is the second part of the last chapter, her and Dom discussing the memory of him leaving, and is the last thing I had planned out. Otherwise I have to brainstorm some. Also I really need to work on my other stuff and I promise I will. Training is just a bit draining. Phew! Anyway, enjoy! I hope I did okay with this chapter.

_Talk to Me_

The race home with Mia had done a little to cool her temper. So she was feeling more level-headed by the time she pulled into the driveway. Mia was pulling up behind her as she stepped out of the car. The other woman walked up to her, then hugged her. Letty smiled, leaning in to hug her back.

"If you need to come talk my door is always open," Mia assured, then disappeared into the house.

Letty sighed, lingering in the driveway beside her car. She knew she should go inside and talk to Dom, but a part of her knew that they'd only end up arguing. She wasn't sure if she wanted to start it just yet. She dragged a hand through her hair, gathering her thoughts.

She wasn't sure she'd managed them any better by the time the back door swung open and Dom appeared in it. Their eyes met across the distance and she sighed, leaning back against her car. He walked towards her slowly, a question in his eyes.

"You gonna stay out here all night?"

"At least till I no longer wanted to punch you," she replied mildly.

"Will it help you feel better?" he asked, shifting to stand beside her.

"I don't know Dom," she sighed, clenching her teeth. "You know I got a mean right hook."

"Seen it in action more than once," he agreed, his expression somber. "You gonna talk to me about this now?"

"You sure you want to hear it?" Letty asked, raising a brow in his direction. "This is old news to you."

He sighed, rubbing at the top of his head wearily. "Okay… I shouldn't have said that. But you're not going to say anything I didn't already tell myself."

"You said you wanted to talk." She crossed her arms over her chest. "So either you're going to listen to me say it all over again or we're not going to talk."

"Say what you have to say," he told her.

"You _knew _I didn't want to run off to safety just because things were getting a little hairy," she said, turning to face him. "I can't believe that even after I told you that we'd figure things out, after I made it clear that I didn't want to be apart from you… you had the gall to go and make that decision for me!"

"I thought I was doing the right thing at the time."

"Even if you thought it was _right, _Dom. It wasn't just your choice to make. And if you pull that kind of shit on me… what about other big decisions in our lives? I need to have a say. Don't you know that I'm not that girl who lets her man take care of her while she sits safe at home? Didn't you know it _then?_"

He threw up his hands. "Of _course _I knew it, Letty. I know you're stubborn and capable as hell. But that doesn't change that I want to keep you safe." He sighed. "Before the Dominican Republic…." He murmured, brows furrowed as he looked into the distance. "Before that I'd been… too young and stupid to realize just how much I really needed you."

She stared at him, confusion in her dark eyes. "I don't understand."

Dom pushed away from the car, pacing along the length of the driveway as she watched him. She supposed she couldn't blame him; after all, they'd always been crap at talking about their relationship. She remembered that much. When they were together they always just _were _and it was usually easy. She'd always known just what he was thinking, and just when he was full of shit. It had worked for as long as they'd been together, which was a long time, when she thought about it. Even after you took away the years they'd been separated and the months they'd been apart before that.

He turned back to her, his eyes serious and he just looked so damn vulnerable. It was jarring, because though he didn't always feel the need to put on the show, to hide behind his ego with her, he still tended to try and show strength. He always wanted to be the one taking care of others. It was why they were standing here fighting now, after all.

"Ever since I've known you, Letty, I can't remember a time when I didn't _want _you. But it took me a long time to realize that I needed you too."

"You need me so you left me?" She looked at him dubiously.

He cupped her cheek, thumb tracing the line of her jaw. "I needed you to be safe."

She laughed shortly. "Dom… you can't ask me to be someone I'm not." She reached up to grasp his hand with hers. "You're the one who said I can never stay out of trouble."

He closed his eyes. "That's different. It's not prison. I never wanted you to have to experience that."

"The plan wasn't to get caught, Dom. You wouldn't have gone back to prison, remember?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "I wanted to go to Rio. I wanted us to go together. Instead you left me while I was _sleeping _so that I couldn't argue with you. You disappeared and I was left with what? A bitter taste in my mouth. And the only thing to do was come home to LA, to Mia. And sit here and be surrounded by everything that was part of _us. _Our life, _together. _But I was alone."

He was watching her now, but he turned away, unable to meet her gaze, his shoulders sagging. He knew that everything she said was true. She had every right to be angry at him.

"It was like you were giving up on us," she said softly, then laughed bitterly. "I could have _let _you, Dom. I could have taken that money, told Mia goodbye and peaced out on _us, _just like you did." She raised a brow. "But I didn't. I fought to bring your stupid ass home."

"And nearly got yourself killed," he said, taking a step towards her.

"I wouldn't have _had _to if you'd listened to me!"

"Damn it Letty I was trying to keep you safe and you went right out and put yourself into danger again!"

"You shouldn't have tried to make me do something I did _want _to, Dominic," she fairly hissed, crowding into his space, stabbing her finger against his chest. "You don't always know best. You shouldn't have expected me to fall in line and do what you wanted when you knew it wasn't what _I _wanted."

"If you'd done that then you'd have stayed safe," he replied, grabbing her by her shoulders. He didn't hurt her. No matter how bad they'd fought he'd never raised a hand to her, and even now when he was angry, his touch was gentle. "But you never listen and the next thing I know I'm getting a phone call from Mia saying you're _dead!_ How do you think that felt, Letty?"

"Like getting your heart ripped out and stomped on," she murmured, staring up at him. "How do you think it felt to get walked out on without so much as a goodbye?"

"Like hell," he muttered, then sighed, wrapping his big arms around her and pulling her close.

She buried her face against his chest, inhaling the smell of him. Her hands curled into the back of his cotton t-shirt.

"So we both put each other through hell," she said, her voice muffled against his body. "But how can we regret our choices? Everything that happened led up to this point. Brian and Mia together… little Jack. Our family back home and our records cleared…"

"I regret those two years without you," he replied, his hands curving against her back to hold her against him.

She held onto him, silent, because she regretted it too. She regretted never having seen Vince again before he died, not being there when Mia found out she was having a baby. But there was nothing to do now but move forward.

"We got a second chance, Dom," she finally said. "Not everyone gets that."

He pressed his lips into the crown of her hair, his breath warm as it feathered through the strands. Letty tilted her head to look up at him. He cupped her jaw, rough fingers caressing the soft skin of her cheek.

"I love you," he murmured, leaning down to kiss her softly.

She parted her lips against his, leaning her body into the hard length of his.

She knows it will take her some time to get over this memory, but she also knows that she loves him, and nothing can change that.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Okay so… someone suggested the Night Swim in the DR for a memory so I thought it would be fun and I ran with it and we have a little sexy and playful stuff going on here with Dom and Letty. I figured you all deserved it after the last chapter. The memory in this one is a lot more of the story, because I wanted to explore what it might have been. I'm not entirely sure about my writing these days, so let me know what you guys think!

A Night Swim

"_You wanted to go for a night swim…"_

She'd remembered other parts of their time in the DR first. Jumping from a speeding tanker truck, watching that same truck, flaming, rolling towards them down the narrow mountain road. She'd remembered eating homemade meals with Tego and Rico. She remembered Han, whom they'd met in Mexico, being there. She remembered the fact that Dom had called and asked him to come to the Dominican and _she'd _had to hunt him down had irked her more than a little. She also remembered the fact that she'd found him surrounded by skanks had annoyed her.

She remembered more good things than bad though. She remembered taking long drives down the beach roads with Dom, playing a game out of trying to distract him. She remembered quiet nights curled up together in the little house in the beach. How peaceful it had been, how right everything had felt. How part of her had hoped that this was how it would stay.

She also remembered when he left her.

That had been a hard one to deal with, and the memory had left her angry at him for days.

They'd worked past that. But it didn't mean she didn't think about it sometimes.

It seemed sometimes that the more bitter the memory the harder it was to deal with. Sometimes she wished she'd forgotten some things. Parts of her childhood, her fucked-up relationship with her mother. But then, she realized those experiences and memories were all part of what shaped her into the woman she was. She wasn't completely the same woman. Now she had other memories, other experiences. And there were still some gaps in her past. Fewer these days.

There were rarely moments where she felt lost or confused, or where she didn't understand a joke or a comment someone made.

It was nice to feel whole again.

It was nice to sit down to dinner with her family every night, to laugh at little Jack's antics and watch him grow. To crash in the living room with Mia, Brian and Dom after the baby was asleep, watching a movie or just having a beer and talking. It was nice to go upstairs and crawl into the big bed she'd shared with Dom. The room Mia had given her when she'd first come back to London with them was emptied now. All her things were in Dom's room, her clothes in the closet and tucked into the dresser. The pictures she had framed were crowded on top of it with the others there, pictures she could identify all of now, times she could remember.

She kicked her boots into the closet as Dom wandered into the bathroom. She could hear the sound of the faucet running and him brushing his teeth as she tugged her t-shirt over her head and tossed it into the hamper. Her jeans had joined the shirt by the time Dom came back into the room, tugging his own shirt over his head.

She glanced at him with a smile as she tugged off her bracelets to leave on top of the dresser. Her fingers brushed lightly over the scar there, distracting her. She remembered now how she'd gotten it. The story behind that few words Dom had given her in London. Her fingers brushed at her hip idly, and she glanced down at the scar there.

_You wanted to go for a night swim…_

_It was late. They'd spent the morning working on their cars and after lunch a meeting with Han and the others to work on some details. In two days they'd be able to make their first run on a tanker traveling from the port._

_She knew that it was on Dom's mind. She knew that he was worried that something might go wrong, especially now that she was involved. He knew she was capable, but he was also scared to see her get hurt or worse._

_Of course, Letty knew everything he was thinking, so she distracted him. She'd convinced him that they should go out for dinner, then dragged him around the city to take in some of the local flavor. His Spanish was getting a lot better, but his accent was still pretty awful. It was nearing midnight when she'd finally relented, agreeing to drive back to their isolated little beach house._

_After all, she was never opposed to time alone with her man. And it was just one more way to distract him._

_In the car he laughed as she climbed into his lap, one arm coming off the steering wheel to pull her against him. _

"_You are a dangerous woman to have in a vehicle," he told her, hand sliding down her back to rest against her waist._

"_Don't tell me you want me to sit back in my seat and buckle up," she murmured, pressing her lips against his throat._

"_I didn't say that…"_

_She laughed and bit down at his earlobe lightly, her hands sliding down over the muscles in his shoulders and arms. His hand tightened on her hip and he turned his head to kiss her deeply and she returned the kiss, hands cupping at his face until she felt the car swerve slightly and she pulled back with a grin._

"_Better watch the road, Papa. I got something for you when we get back."_

_He smiled, though there was an intensity in his eyes when he turned back to the road. _

_They were pulling up onto the beach in record time and the engine was still running when Dom tangled his hand in her hair and kissed her hard. She parted her lips against his, wrapping her arms around him and pressing close. She wanted him with an intensity that hadn't waned since they'd first been together. Perhaps it was all the time they were forced to spend apart. Perhaps it was all the danger. But there was always passion between them._

_She hoped there always would be._

_Drawing back for air she grinned at him, a wicked little glint in her eyes, before she hopped over the car door, landing in the sand. She kicked off her shoes as he stared at her._

"_What are you doing?"_

"_We should go for a night swim," she said, wiggling out of her shorts._

"_You want to go swimming?"_

_She laughed at the disappointment in his voice, dropping her shirt into the sand. "Come on, the water's warm and there's no one around."_

_He was getting out of the car when she tossed her bra and panties at his face with a laugh, then ran down to the water. Letty dove in, knowing he would give chase. Times like these, he was the one running after her. _

_At night it was harder to see in the water. The moon above lit the surface aglow and filtered down slightly, but all she could see were dark shapes as she kicked outwards, propelling herself deeper. She heard the splash of Dom diving after her and turned her head slightly. _

_A sudden, sharp stinging sensation against her hip as she ran into something jarred her away from her game and she gasped into the water, turning so that she could swim for the surface. When she broke the water she let out a hissed curse, pressing her hand against her hip. The injury was burning from the saltwater but she ignored it as she scanned for Dom._

_A sudden hand against her thigh said that he'd found her, right before he surfaced in front of her. His other hand cupped her cheek and he smiled. "You okay?"_

"_Think I ran into some reef or something. Forgot about that," she laughed, wrapping her arms around him. "It's nothing. Just a scratch."_

_He pulled her closer, kissing her and she soon forgot about the brief pain._

She remembered it hadn't been till morning that they'd realized the little scratch had been quite deep, and that Dom had one to match. He said it hadn't hurt enough to mention and she'd rolled her eyes at him.

Letty's fingers traced the scar slowly and she lifted her head to find Dom watching her. She blinked at him and he grinned.

"You looked far away there."

"I was… I remembered." She sat down on the foot of the bed and he came to sit beside her. "When we went for our night swim."

His fingers traced the scar on her hip. "You know you probably wouldn't have gotten that if we'd just had sex in the car."

"Oh because we never do that," she deadpanned, then grinned at him. Her hand came to rest over his, on top of the scar. "I like that I have it…" she said softly. "It's a reminder of a good memory. I mean, hurting ourselves aside. We do that a lot too."

He smiled back, cupping her jaw to kiss her softly. "You're right. It's a good memory."

She leaned into him slightly. "Sometimes I get so focused on the bad ones… but really, most of my memories are good ones."

He laughed, fingers tangling in her dark hair. "And some of them are just crazy."

"Mmm," she agreed. "Like driving under flaming tanker trucks..."

"Or driving through walls…"

"Or that party Mia and I went to senior year…"

"Or…" he trailed off, frowning at her. "What party?"

"Or all the millions of times I chased skanks away from you," she said pointedly.

"Okay I don't have to know about the party…"

She laughed, scooting back to lie out on their bed, thumbs hooked under the waistline of her underwear. "Come on, Papa, let's make some new memories."


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: The first scar memory. How Letty and Dom first meet. This exploded into a chapter WAY longer than intended. Hopefully you guys enjoy!

_A Race_

One day she snuck out of the house to go out driving on her own. It wasn't that she thought the others would really care, but it was that she wanted to be alone for a little while. Being at the house could be stifling sometimes, especially because she only had small pieces of her memories, her past, and her history with these people.

She'd forgotten that Sunday mornings she used to help Mia make a big breakfast for everyone and then they wouldn't eat again until it was time for the weekly barbeque. She'd forgotten that Dom drank his coffee with just a touch of cream, or that Mia got the TV all to herself for two hours each night to watch whatever girly drama she wanted. She'd forgotten sometimes she'd sit with her friend and watch to keep her company, even though shows like Grey's Anatomy made her want to roll her eyes.

And yet she'd still come down on Sunday morning and asked Mia if they should make pancakes, startled when the other woman had hugged her tightly, tears in her eyes. She'd added creamer to Dom's coffee, then apologized for not asking if he wanted it, while he just took it with a grin. When Mia had parked herself in the TV room after dinner and the boys had made themselves scarce in the yard she'd stretched out on the couch and asked how her friend could 'watch this soapy drama shit?' Mia had laughed and told her that was what she always asked and Letty had distracted herself by playing with Jack.

On the one hand it was nice to know she was still the same woman, despite her missing memories. On the other it was strange that they knew her better than she knew herself. Sometimes she felt lost, confused. She wanted to know everything that Dom knew about her. She wanted to know everything about him, like she once had. But instead there were only snippets, and big blank stretches.

They gave her time; they gave her space when she needed it. They were patient. More patient than she was. Sometimes she wished she could fix her brain as easily as she could fix a car. But it was like there were too many missing pieces and everything was on back order.

Someday she'd have everything back, she kept telling herself, some day.

She told Mia she was going out after dinner and was out the door and in her car before the boys appeared to ask more questions. She pulled out of the driveway, turned up her music and drove away, letting the familiar flood her. The feel of her hand on the gear shift, the roar of the car's engine just under the blast of her music. Her window was open and she could smell LA on the wind that whipped through her hair; the spice of Mexican food drifting from some abuelitas house, the sharp floral fragrance of lilacs planted in a high wall against the road, all underlied by the smog that clung to everything. Maybe it wasn't the freshest air in the world, but it was home, and there was some comfort in that.

She drove down roads that she knew even though she wasn't sure how she knew them, past rundown houses and into the commercial area of town where the buildings crowded together, taller and made of brick and stone instead of stucco and vinyl siding. Letty slowed as she turned down a quiet road that was dark, here where half the streetlights had burnt out and no one had bothered to replace them. And down at the far end a big empty lot by an abandoned building. She pulled up alongside it, idling at the curb, staring at a broken beer bottle on the sidewalk.

_It was her first street race, and even though Letty didn't have anything more than her driver's permit yet she had been desperate to go. Not to race, no she knew she wasn't ready for that. But just to watch. To experience it. To be around all the people and the cars. To be around people who she understood. Who understood her. Fuel was in her blood. Cars were on her brain. She couldn't care about school or any of that shit adults thought she ought to be worried about._

_And even if she was slightly concerned about boys these days, she couldn't be bothered to paint her nails or wear makeup. _

_It had been her friend Hector who'd invited her along, offering her a ride.  
_

_So of course she'd jumped on the invite to the street race, and on the ride there Hector had warned her not to cause him any trouble. She'd just rolled her eyes at him and made no promises. At fifteen she was a prime example of teenaged bad behavior and attitude and she sure as hell wasn't going to listen to anything Hector said._

_So she'd ditched him as soon as she could, wandering the big lot where the racers had gathered to lay down money and challenges and check out each other's cars. That was what drew her eye and Letty ignored the people around her as she eyed the cars._

_She couldn't wait till she had her own ride. Not that she had any money, but she would, one day, she assured herself._

_Her eyes passed over the skanks that had gathered around, hanging off the men and posing by the vehicles and she wrinkled her nose. Skirts too short to be anything other than a belt, breasts pushed up to spill out of tiny crop-tops and blonde hair pulled into innocent school-girl pigtails. It made her want to vomit and she wondered if those girls had even an inch of self-respect._

_Not that Letty had arrived to her very first street race looking like a nun, but she knew you didn't have to show off all the skin you had to look sexy. And she'd certainly kept that in mind when she'd selected her outfit; tight black jeans with a black silver-studded belt that sat low on her hips, shit-kicking black leather boots and a tight burgundy tank top. Her dark hair was loose down her back and she'd blow-dried it straight that morning, but the ends were still wavy and slightly curled._

_She stopped by a cluster of cars, peering around a crowd that had gathered to watch some guy break-dance. Most of the cars here were imports, tricked out Asian cars with flashy paint and decals. In LA, that was what you came to see at the street-racing scene, but every once in a while there was something special._

_A pretty black and red 1970 Chevelle. Not a common sight around here and perhaps that was why she was curious. She didn't see anyone around it as she strolled up, squeezing past the crowds._

_The car was obviously well cared for, the interior refinished and kept classic with black leather seats and no fancy tricks in the console. She leaned against the door as she looked in the car, wishing that the owner was around so she could pop the hood and take a look at the power hiding under the body of that baby._

"_Got a thing for American Muscle?" _

_The voice from behind her startled her and Letty turned slowly, trying to look nonchalant as she eyed the guy it belonged to. His voice was deep, with just enough gravel in it to make her think he was older, but he looked like he couldn't be more than a few years her senior, his dark hair shorn close to his head, eyes dark as they surveyed her, strong nose and jaw and a build under his black t-shirt that was tending towards muscular, as if he spent some time in the gym or lifting weights. _

_Probably to impress all the sluts around here, she thought with mild disgust, eying him up and down._

"_What's it to you? She yours?"_

_He grinned at her, as if he found the bite of sass in her voice amusing, or appealing. "Nope. I was looking at something else."_

_She narrowed her eyes at him, getting the meaning of his words. A part of her felt a little thrill at his flirtation. All right, more than a little. He was hot as hell. Plus they were surrounded by cars so she was already more than a little turned on._

_She crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow at him. "Is that it?" She looked around boredly. "I guess with all these skanks around you don't normally have to try very hard, huh?" She grinned, pushing off the car to walk past him. "I'm not so easily impressed."_

_She could feel him staring at her as she walked away, and maybe she put a little extra saunter in her step as she went to find Hector. No doubt the race would start soon._

_But admittedly, she was curious about that guy._

Letty gasped and dropped her head forward against the steering wheel. She stared at the lot again, and now she could see all those pretty cars, all the people gathered, hear the music playing, hear the laughter, smell a hint of weed in the air. She leaned her head back, shifting her car into park as she lingered in the memory. The first time she'd met Dom.

She could feel it all buzzing around in her mind. How she'd pestered Hector on the way to the race, long enough to get the name Dominic Toretto out of him. He'd warned her to stay away from him.

"That guy plays girls and discards them," he'd warned her.

_But she hadn't listened. Oh no she'd never listened to anyone. When someone told her no, she made it into a yes. It was just that every bone in Letty Ortiz's body wanted to rebel and she'd made it into an art. It was as if she couldn't behave because she'd set her standards already and everyone expected her to be bad. So why raise expectations?_

_She knew the name Toretto though, and it came to her as they pulled up along the strip where they were going to race. Dominic against Johnny Tran. She hated Tran and his family. They were rich as hell and she'd come from poverty. People like him would never let people like her forget that. Forget that they weren't equals._

_Then she'd spotted her. Mia Toretto, leaning against a car boredly near the finish line. A guy stood next to her, tattoos on his arms, in bad need of a shave. Looked pissed off at the world. She didn't know him._

_She and Mia were in the same class. But they weren't in the same social circles. Mia did her homework and was well-behaved. Letty was getting sent to detention every other day it seemed. Letty was getting in fights during gym class and in the halls and Mia was on the honor roll. _

_She would say she didn't know why she'd walked towards them, what had made her go over and say Hey. But she knew it was because of Dom. Because, despite what she'd told him, she was interested. But Mia had smiled at her, relief in her dark eyes as she escaped the careful watch of the scruffy guy and hurried over to her._

"_Thank you so much," she whispered. "Vince watches me like a hawk because my brother is so overprotective."_

_Letty briefly wondered what it was like to have someone actually give a shit about you, to worry about you and watch over you. But she'd shrugged instead._

"_You come to these a lot?" she asked. "They don't seem like your scene."_

_Mia laughed. "Right, because I behave at school? There's more to me than meets the eye."_

"_Really?" Letty raised a brow._

"_Really. I can drive. I want to race too but Dom won't let me. But he lets me come and watch. And I get to go to the parties afterwards. My Dad doesn't fuss because he knows Dom and Vince will watch out for me."_

"_Your parents know?"_

"_My Dad… just my dad. Mom's gone." Mia crossed her arms over her chest. "But yeah. Well, he knows a little."_

Letty remembered that once she'd gotten to know Mia she'd liked her, and the other girl had invited her to watch the race with them. It had turned out that they'd had just as much in common as not. It had also turned out to be painfully obvious to Letty that Vince had a massive crush on Mia, and that was probably more of the reason why he was so overprotective.

She remembered the excitement of the race, the way it had started all of the sudden, and it was only seconds later when the cars were jetting towards them. She remembered the way the breath had caught in her throat and time had seemed to slow. Her eyes had met Dom's through the window of his car and he'd grinned at her and turned his wheel just as he'd shifted into reverse, the car sliding backwards over the finish line just ahead of Tran's.

She remembered how she'd stared in shock, jaw dropped, eyes wide. He'd been grinning like a cat that swallowed the canary, all too pleased with himself as he held her gaze. But he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, too focused on her and Letty was already moving when his car clipped the bumper of a racer who'd parked too far out.

Dom's car had spun and she remembered Mia shouting her name as she'd found herself pinned against the back of Vince's car in shock as the out of control vehicle spun towards her with a squeal of the brakes.

_She had closed her eyes tight but there was no sound of a crash, no crushing pain and when she opened her eyes the side of the car was mere inches away from her and Dominic was standing beside it, staring at her in surprise and worry._

_She stared back at him, her breath caught in her throat, and then she laughed. _

"_You are crazy, man," she said, shaking her head._

_He blinked at her, then grinned, reaching out to grab her by the hips and lift her up over the car. Her hands came down on her shoulder and she felt a twinge of pain. She looked down to see a trickle of blood against her wrist._

_He set her on her feet, taking her hand to examine it. "You're hurt."_

"_Just a scratch," she insisted, tugging her hand back, even though it hurt like a son of a bitch. "I heard there was a party."_

"_Sure is," he looked down at her. "You want a ride?"_

Letty remembered that she'd laughed and told him only if he drove going the right way. She remembered on the way to the party he'd asked her if she was impressed yet and she'd only smiled and told him "Maybe." She remembered "Maybe" would become a running joke between the two of them. She remembered how he'd flirted, and how she'd smiled at him wolfishly and asked him about his car. And by the time they'd reached the party he was more interested in talking engine specs and their dream car's than trying to get into her pants.

And it was when they both started to fall just a little bit in love with each other. Two stupid kids with no idea about the world and what was in store for them.

But they had found each other, and that would make all that was to come all that easier to bear. She could remember that now. And she remembered it as she drove home, a smile on her lips and feeling just a little bit more complete.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: This one is about the friendship between Letty and Brian and the friendship between Letty and Vince. Some nice history here and I'm pleased with this chapter. I hope you enjoy it! And just want to let you all know that I read and appreciate every review it really makes me happy to know you're loving my little stories.

_A Lost Friend_

She and Brian had spent the better part of the morning going through the storage shed at the garage, tossing out old shit and reorganizing. Dom had offered to help but someone had to work on the few cars they had in today, and truth be told he took up too much space in the cramped storage area.

Though they worked in silence it was companionable and neither of them seemed to feel the need to fill it with anything. It was only when Brian reached for his half-empty water bottle, wiping a hand over his sweaty brow that Letty lifted her head to glance in his direction.

She grinned. "Need a break?"

"Maybe just a minute," he admitted, sitting down on a long bench which had a box full of cables sitting on one end.

"Getting old?" she teased.

"Very funny. Come on, aren't we the same age?"

Brian took another drink as Letty raised a brow at him.

"No. You and Dom are the same age. Mia and I are the same age. Don't tell me I remember something you don't?"

"Cut me a break. Mia told me I was supposed to forget how old she is anyway. While simultaneously remembering her birthday."

Letty laughed, dropping down beside him and stretching her arms over her head.

"Remember anything else lately?" he asked, glancing at her.

She looked down at his feet. "I remember you've always worn those ridiculous shoes since we first met you," she said, nodding to the black converse. "Like some Cali surfer boy. Trying to blend in?"

He grinned. "You caught me. No, come on they're cool."

"Whatever you say man," she grinned. "White boy shoes."

He punched her in the arm lightly and she laughed more, then sobered, staring up at the ceiling.

"There was something," she admitted. "But I dunno if you want to hear it."

"What is it like some sex thing with you and Dom because then, definitely not."

She laughed. "Hell no! I wouldn't even offer you sick, sick bastard."

"Okay then, hit me," he said, tucking one hand behind his head as he leaned against the dirty stone wall. "What is it?"

"You remember Vince..?"

"Yeah, of course," he replied, sobering slightly, gaze drifting away. "Not that he and I were what you'd call… best buddies."

"I recall," she said drily, raising a brow. "At least that much. I mean… he had a thing for Mia for a long time. She was never interested, but she was interested in you. You can't blame him for being hurt. That hurt turned into resentment."

"Yeah, I guess it's easier to look at it logically now. At the time he was just always in my face."

"He was right about you though." Letty's voice was soft. "You were a cop. He was the only one who saw that."

"True," he agreed, dropping his head. "He probably deserved an apology for that."

"From Dom, and the rest of us. For not listening to him. But you? You were doing your job, Brian."

He shook his head, brushing away her words. "What did you remember about Vince?"

She sighed out a long breath, tugging her fingers through her long hair as she hunched forward on the bench. She leaned her arms against her thighs.

"When I was a kid… I wasn't really into school. Like, especially in High School. I mean, I _hated _it." She straightened up to look over at him. "I used to think it was all bullshit. Like somehow knowing how to write a fucking essay about Catcher in the Rye was gonna change my life? Was gonna matter at all?" She laughed. "I always knew that whatever I did it was going to be with cars so it didn't really seem that important."

"I hear you," he muttered.

Letty cast a glance at him, somewhat dubious, then shrugged. "And I used to cut class a lot… and I would always, _always _ditch school whenever me and Dom had a fight. He used to give Mia and me a ride home. Not that I was complaining except when we fought I really didn't want to see his face."

Brian laughed. "What did you guys fight a lot?"

"Not excessively, but now and then. I mean come on, Brian we were kids. And you've met us you know how stubborn we are."

"Yeah that's true the both of you," he grinned. "Hard headed to the end."

"When I was a teenager… I avoided being home whenever I could." Letty scuffed her boots against the floor, folding her fingers together. "So when I wasn't at school I was here or I was at Dom and Mia's house."

"Sounds like a problem if you were trying to avoid Dom."

She grinned at him. "Yeah, hell of a problem."

"Where'd you go?" he asked.

_The hollow sound of the tennis ball thunking against the wall, then bouncing back against the ground had been her only company for hours. Mindless, really, the motion of tossing the ball and catching it again, sitting on the dirty pavement in her ripped up jeans and red tank top. She wore beat-up combat boots with steel toes that Mia liked to call her 'Ball-busters' in a way that made Dom and the other guys wince._

_She didn't even look up at the sound of approaching footsteps. Just kept tossing the ball and catching it, mulish, bored expression fixed on her face. Didn't look up when someone settled down beside her, letting out a great sigh, long denim clad legs stretched out next to hers, grease-splattered work boots planted on the blacktop. _

_A hand reached out and intercepted the ball next toss. She frowned, glancing sideways at her companion. Scruffy as always, looking in need of a damn shower, right arm bandaged from his newest ink. He tossed the ball in the air, caught it, and glanced at her._

"_You're so damn predictable, Let."_

_She didn't say anything, just turned back away, staring at the graffiti on the wall in front of her. The abandoned lot held only the one empty, brick building and everything of any value had long since been stolen. But it sat on the far end of an abandoned track._

_Before her dad had gone off to die in someone else's war he'd taken her here and taught her how to drive. She'd been far too young, ten years old and not even able to reach the gas pedal. But he'd sat her on his lap and showed her how to steer and how to shift. She liked this place because it reminded her of her dad. Because she could hold onto those happy memories she'd had with him._

"_You gonna stay here all day?" Vince asked, finally unable to stand her silence any longer._

"_Where else am I gonna go?" she bit back, sneering in his direction._

"_C'mon Letty… come home," he told her. And when he said home he meant to the Toretto house. It was the place all of them truly considered home._

"_I'm not in the mood to deal with Dom's shit," she muttered._

"_You're the only one that can," he said softly, tossing the tennis ball into her lap before he stood._

_She grabbed at the ball, her head snapping up and her eyes narrowed._

"_What does that mean?"_

"_Oh you want to talk now?" Vince asked, holding out his arms._

"_I never said I didn't want to talk."_

_He sighed, reaching down to ruffle her hair in a brotherly fashion. "Can't ask for a damn thing, can you?" He was grinning though. "What happened?"_

"_Nothing happened." She stood up slowly, arching her back to stretch the stiffness from her limbs._

"_Bullshit you and Dom had a fight which is why your ass is here instead of home," Vince told her._

"_And what? He didn't give you the rundown already?" she asked, eyebrow arched moodily._

_Vince laughed. "All he says is that you get pissed off for no reason. You know how he is."_

"_He keeps treating me like a kid," she complained, throwing the tennis ball with force. It smacked against the wall loudly, then bounced back with force. Vince ducked out of the way, and then stared at her._

"_I get you're angry here, Letty but uh… you _are _16. Technically not an adult."_

"_What a surprise you take his side," Letty said drily, shoving past him. "If he thinks I'm a little girl, then he probably shouldn't be fucking me."_

"_I don't want to know about that!" Vince complained, hurrying after her. "How does he treat you like a kid?"_

_She eyed him, as if debating on saying anything more, arms crossed over her chest. "Keeps asking me about school… my grades. Gets mad at me when I get in trouble or cut."_

_Vince wrapped his arm around her, drawing her against his side. "C'mon girl, don't act stupid. You know he does that cause he cares about you. Wants you to make something of yourself. What you want to end up cleaning other people's houses or waitressing tables for the rest of your life like so many other ladies from our neighborhood?"_

_She grimaced, because she knew he was right, and that was why she didn't shove him away. Sighing she looked up at her friend. "I get it. I do. But I hate school, V. It's not for me. I'm not going to wait tables or clean houses. I'm gonna work in the garage. And I don't need to learn how to write essays or dissect a fucking frog to do what I want to do. It's just a big fucking waste of time."_

_Vince looked at her, nodding slowly. "I get you. Fine. That's what you want. Explain to Dom what you just did to me. Calm-like. Don't fight over it. Ain't worth that shit."_

_She wrinkled her nose. "I tried that. Sort of."_

_He laughed. "Not hard enough. C'mon girl… let's go home. It'll all work out."_

She looked up to meet Brian's gaze. "And you know what? It did work out… But… not for Vince."

Brian looked down at his hands, collecting his thoughts. He'd known that Vince had been a part of this family before he had. That Letty and Dom and even Mia had been close to him, in their own ways. It sounded more like Vince had been like a brother to Letty. That there'd really been a side to him that Brian had never known, never seen. The side of him that had driven Vince to risk his life to save Mia's in Rio.

"He had a wife and daughter you know?" he finally said, looking up at her.

"Yeah. Dom told me about them," she agreed, nodding. "Said Vince named the little guy after him." She smiled. "Nico."

Brian chuckled softly. "Yeah. We left Vince's share of the Rio job to Rosa. I'm sure she'd rather have Vince back but… at least they can live a comfortable life."

"Yeah," Letty said softly. "I've been meaning to write to her. But I don't know what to say."

"Maybe just… talk to her about Vince," Brian rubbed a hand over his face. "I admit I didn't really get to know her."

"It didn't sound like you guys had a lot of time down there."

"No, I guess not," he agreed, pushing himself to his feet. "But Vince helped us out big time there. He saved Mia's life, among other things. In the end… he and I made peace. I'm just sorry he had to die."

"Me too," she said softly. "I miss him. Now that I can remember him…. I miss him a lot."

She lifted her head then, holding onto the good memories she did have of her lost friend, scanning the piles of junk still to be sorted. She shook her head, smiling slightly.

"Shit," she muttered. "We've wasted enough time. C'mon… let's get back to work."


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: Because a lot of the most important memories are not good ones. This chapter is a bit sad but I tried to end it on a light note. Not really sure if it's as good as some of my others but… I think that a lot. Maybe I'm just my own worst critic! Hope you guys enjoy.

_A Dark Time_

She was taking a walk with Mia and Jack around the neighborhood when she remembered one of the worst times of her life.

Perhaps it wasn't fair to claim that, for surely it had been just as bad, if not worse for Mia and Dom. But when she remembered it with sudden, painful clarity she had stalled on the sidewalk, staring up at the corner house with the overgrown yard. There was a cracked, cement stoop and the brown paint on the siding was peeling.

Mia paused too, hands resting on the stroller she was pushing as she turned to follow her friend's gaze. "Your old place…" she murmured. "Dom took you by here before, didn't he?"

Letty nodded, staring at the narrow windows. Its current resident had hung up sunny yellow curtains, perhaps to try and give the place a little cheer for not a lot of money. Letty couldn't even fathom of a time when her mother had bothered with such a thing.

She could feel her father's dog tags resting against her chest with a sudden heaviness and reached up to wrap her hand around them. She had remembered sitting on that stoop and looking up at the stars with her father. How he'd told her that wherever he was in the world he could see those same stars. And that whenever she looked up, she could think about how he was looking up somewhere and thinking about her.

For a long time, even after he'd died she'd stared up at the sky and imagined that he was still somewhere staring up at the same sky.

She remembered too many nights spent on that stoop just to get away from her mother. How Dom would walk down the street and sit with her there just talking. Just about anything… about cars, about his Dad or Mia. About something stupid Vince had done. About nothing at all.

She remembered climbing into his lap and kissing him breathless, his hand up her shirt, her hand down his pants, never worrying that her mother might catch them because the woman never cared enough to come check on her.

And when the old stoop became too public a place to be alone they'd see how fast they could get back to his place and sneak in without waking his Dad or Mia.

All of these things had already come back to her, making her smile or cry, and share them with Dom, whispering little things she remembered when she curled around him in bed.

But she hadn't remembered another time spent on that stoop with Dom. Not until she stood there now with Mia under the warm LA sun, listening to Jack push buttons on some little hand-held toy that played music. And suddenly she remembered it like it was yesterday.

_It was only days after Mr. Toretto's funeral and she was still in a daze. Nearly every minute since that horrible day at the races she'd been with Dom and Mia. Helping Mia around the house, sweating hours at the garage with Dom and Vince to try and catch up with the work. They'd closed only one day to go to the funeral, which they'd all planned together. Mia had seemed to cry constantly, while Dom never seemed to cry at all._

_She hadn't even seen him break down since that day at the races. The day she'd stood with him in the pit and watched his father crash. Watched the wreck go up in flames. Stood in shock as Dom started screaming. The pit crew had to hold him back to keep him from running onto the track. _

_And since then he'd been almost blank. Going through the motions. He worked hard at the garage; he made sure Mia went back to school. He was physically present, but he hadn't really been there. And even when they'd be alone together he wouldn't or couldn't talk about it._

_And she might have worried, or thought that he was pulling away from her, except that she knew him so well. She knew that he'd talk about it when he was ready. She knew that from the desperate way he seemed to hold onto her in his sleep, the way he reached for her hand as they watched them slowly lower the coffin into the ground. How he'd turn to her early in the morning, pressing his nose against her temple and whisper that he loved her when he thought she was still asleep._

_So she knew he would talk to her eventually._

_She just hadn't expected it to happen the way it had. _

_It was the first day she'd gone back to her place. In the middle of the day her mother was gone at work. It was the perfect time to slip back home and get some more clothes and stuff. She didn't really live at home, or she wasn't there often enough to feel like she did, but she and Dom had both known his dad probably wouldn't have approved of the fact that she was practically living with him. So she'd become quite adept at sneaking in and out of Dom's room. And on the nights she couldn't get away with it she would innocently crash in Mia's room._

_She figured Mr. Toretto had probably known the truth the whole time but he'd never said anything about it._

_It was a Saturday so the work load at the garage was light enough for Dom and Vince to handle on their own. Mia had gone to the movies with some friends, probably hoping to get her mind off of things. It was after two when she made the walk down to her house. The guys should be home from the garage by now, but she half-expected Vince had taken Dom to some bar to get wasted. _

_She wrinkled her nose at the wine bottles piled in the kitchen sink and sighed. Her mother never could stay sober._

_She bypassed the mess of a kitchen and hurried up the stairs to her room. The clothes she'd left on the floor the last time she'd changed here were still there and she gathered them up, shoving them into her duffle bag. She emptied her dresser and her closet, cramming the bag as full as she could get it. She'd come back for the rest eventually. After losing Mr. T she didn't think there was any way she'd be back here. Dom and Mia were her family anyway._

_She was just grabbing a pair of boots to take with her when there was a pounding knock on the front door. _

_Brow furrowed in confusion, Letty hurried down the steps, dropping the bag and her shoes at the foot with a soft thud. She yanked open the door to see Dom standing there on the stoop._

"_Hey, I was just about to-" she trailed off when she saw the anguished look on his face._

_And the blood splatters on his shirt. _

_Her eyes went wide. "Dom…?"_

_Then she was in his arms and he was clinging to her and her arms were around him. She could feel his face pressed against the curve of her shoulder, feel the dampness through her shirt. They sank down to that old cement stoop, her in his lap as he held onto her and cried._

_For what seemed like an eternity Letty didn't say anything, just laid her head against his and rubbed his back idly. _

_Finally his grip on her eased slightly._

"_Letty," he breathed against her skin. "I fucked up…"_

_She tightened her arms around him. "Dom, it's going to be okay…"_

"_No it's not. Let… I need you to watch out for Mia. Promise me."_

"_What are you talking about Dom?" she pulled back to look at him, her hands coming up to frame his face. His eyes looked so dark. "What happened?"_

"_Linder…"_

_She tensed slightly. It was the name of the racer who'd hit his dad's car. Who had inadvertently been responsible for Mr. Toretto's death._

"_I… saw him," Dom said, one hand clenching in her hair._

"_What did you do?" she managed, though she had a sick feeling in her gut._

"_I didn't even realize what I was doing. I was just… hitting him." He drew his hands from her to stare down at them. "I just was so… angry. He's alive and my dad isn't… and I just… wanted to hurt him. And I didn't mean to keep on hitting him Letty. And then I realized there was all this blood… and he wasn't even moving."_

"_Oh my god… Dom…" she whispered. Had he killed a man? What was going to happen to him? She held on tighter._

"_He was alive… and I called 9-1-1… But they're going to come for me."_

_She could feel tears burning her eyes though they didn't fall. Her throat felt tight. Dom buried his face in her hair. She held onto him and tried to imprint the feeling of his arms around her onto her soul. She could feel his heart beating against hers and the heat of his breath feathering against her throat. _

_Letty pressed her eyes closed as she heard sirens in the air. "Whatever happens, Dom, I'm not going anywhere."_

Letty licked her lips slowly, unclenching her hand where she'd fisted it at her side, letting out a shuddering breath as she stared up at the house. That place held so many painful memories, and once her dad had been gone it had held so little love.

She could still remember how the cops had arrived to arrest Dom. How one of the officers had needed to drag her away from him. She remembered how she'd cried as she watched them cuff him and take him to the police car. She'd just been 17 years old. Just a damn kid. And her world had begun to crumble in front of her.

She'd lost a second father with Mr. T, and she'd lost Dom. And then she'd had to wipe away the tears and go back home to tell Mia and Vince what had happened.

She'd had to sit stoically through the trial with Mia crying next to her. She'd had to watch Vince spiral out of control going to the bars every night and drinking himself silly. She had to slap him into gear just to keep the garage running. She had officially dropped out of school, not that she'd cared about leaving text books and homework behind. Dom hadn't exactly been happy when she'd told him.

She'd had to make it through weeks without seeing him, forced to write letters and making the most of the limited visiting hours she and the others were allowed. And every time she'd seen him he looked different. He'd gotten bigger, passing time in the prison gym and she figured it was probably better that he looked like he could break most of the guys in there in half. But it was his eyes that killed her. The way they looked like they'd seen too much.

"Letty?" Mia was blinking at her. "You totally zoned out there. Did I lose you?"

She blinked at her friend. "No… I just," Letty swallowed. "Dom came here to me… right after the incident with Linder."

Mia's eyes widened with understanding and then softened. "Those were bad times," she said softly. "You were my rock through all that, you know?"

Letty looked at her friend in surprise. "What? I was a wreck…"

"You never seemed like it." Mia smiled sadly. "Even though years later I could look back and realize you must have been suffering just as much as the rest of us. But you didn't show it. You held us together. God knows what would have happened to Vince if you hadn't been around… And me? I wasn't ready to be on my own."

"You did fine," Letty said softly. "Give yourself some credit. Managed to finish high school with honors."

"Please," Mia rolled her eyes. "I went to class while you ran the garage with only Vince's drunken ass for help."

"You did the books," Letty insisted. "And worked afternoons at the store."

Mia laughed. "Listen to us arguing over this. I guess we're both a hell of a lot stronger than we give ourselves credit for."

Letty snorted. "I give myself credit."

"Okay fine. At least _one_ of us is humble."

"Tell yourself that but I saw you posing in front of your mirror for like ten minutes yesterday," Letty taunted.

Mia gaped at her, then punched her in the arm. "Hey!" she laughed.

"I almost felt that. Have you been working out?" Letty grinned at her friend.

"So mean," Mia complained as they walked on past the house, leaving it and the sad memories where they belonged. In the past.

It was good to remember them. To remember how they shaped her. But it was time to make some more happier ones.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Ugh so you guys! I had a request for sexytimes… and I wanted to challenge myself to write it. And I also had someone hit me with the idea of er… well a sort of getting caught in the act. So this relates back to the last chapter. This is the memory when Dom comes home from prison! And what better way for them to celebrate? I still have a bit of trouble writing the sexy parts so… hopefully its enjoyable! And of course, there is sex in this chapter. So you are warned.

_A Home Coming_

Waiting had become this game she would play with herself. Waiting for the next memory to come… waiting for the next person from her past to be shocked that she was alive. Waiting for the next time Agent Hobbs might show up on their doorstep and interrupt the sudden normalcy of life.

Right now she was waiting for Dom to get home from the garage, where he'd stayed late so that a client could pick up their car after hours. She'd offered to stick around with him, but he told her to go home and join Mia and Brian for dinner. After which she'd gone upstairs to the bedroom she often now shared with Dom, kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the big bed on her belly.

She let her mind wander, surrounded by the feeling of home and the comfort. The smell of Dom that lingered on his pillow. She could remember now how just after he'd gone prison she'd locked herself up in his room, buried her face in his pillow and cried.

How every night since that day she'd slept in this room, in the bed that had been his, and waited for him to come home again.

Every morning she'd gotten out of bed, roused Vince, eaten the breakfast Mia made them and then driven to the garage. They'd work long days, and she didn't mind it because it seemed to make the time pass more quickly. And at night when she had trouble sleeping in the big bed all alone she'd write a letter to Dom.

For two years she'd measured the days with waiting, punctuated only by brief, unsatisfying visits and the occasional return letter. She couldn't remember every detail of those years, couldn't remember the day Mia had graduated from high school, except she knew that she had been there. She couldn't remember the overnighter she'd pulled when she'd gotten picked up for street-racing to try and earn some extra money. She could remember struggling to pay the bills, could remember the frustration of dealing with Vince, and how Mia had put off college for a year to work full time at the garage helping with detailing and the accounts.

Letty rolled onto her back to look up at the ceiling, sifting through her wandering thoughts, plucking at the strings of painful memories to try and find a thread of happiness.

_It had taken her hours to fall asleep the night before Dom was supposed to come home. Not only because she was excited, but because she was nervous. It had been two years since he'd been locked away, since she'd seen him without the constant presence of correctional officers, sitting in a room full of convicts and their families. _

_But now he was coming home. And she wouldn't have to write anymore letters, or schedule anymore visits. And the fact that he'd be back both thrilled and terrified her. Two years had been long enough to change them both, and she knew it had. She was 19 now, and she'd had to grow up fast. She'd had to learn to take care of herself._

_She'd always been tough, but she knew that now she was a lot rougher. Letty didn't take anyone's shit, and that's how she'd been able to keep things running. It had been how she'd been able to get through every day of the last two years._

_But when the alarm went off at 7 am she rolled over to blink blearily at the ceiling and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She stumbled to the shower and was inside with the hot water beating down on her before her mind registered the fact that she was awake and today was the day Dom came home. The nerves rushed back, along with the excitement and she took the extra time to shave her legs before stepping out of the shower and drying off. _

_Clad in a pair of black jeans and a grey t-shirt she left her hair damp and her feet bare and wandered down to the kitchen where Mia was already making breakfast. Vince was sitting at the table still in the same clothes from the day before- which he'd probably slept in, looking barely awake and drinking a cup of black coffee._

_Letty poured herself a cup and smiled over at Mia, who smiled back._

"_What time can we go get Dom?" she asked, and Letty was sure the girl had asked her at least a dozen times already._

"_They start processing him at 9 and it shouldn't take too long so whoever is going to pick him up should go then."_

"_Aren't we all going to go?" Mia asked. _

"_He doesn't want to have a family reunion at the prison, Mi. Vince can go get him and bring him home. Then you can hug him and cry to your heart's content."_

"_I'm not going to cry," Mia mumbled, transferring the scrambled eggs to a serving bowl._

"_Yes you are," Vince put in from the table. "Letty's right. I'll bring Dom home. It will be easiest."_

Letty stared up at the ceiling, blinking slowly. She could remember how long those two hours had seemed to drag on. How she'd barred Vince from the fridge after he'd gone for a beer. When he'd argued with her she'd told him he had to drive and it would be pretty fucking stupid if he got arrested on his way to pick up Dom from jail.

Muttering he'd retreated to the basement where the sounds of his guitar had drifted up through the closed door.

She pushed herself up to sit on the bed, rubbing at her temples.

She could remember how, tired – she'd come back upstairs and sprawled face down in the bed. The bed that had stopped smelling like Dom weeks after he'd been gone. After an hour of trying she'd given up on sleep, gone downstairs and out to the garage.

_Time passed faster when she was working and with the garage being busy it had been a while since she'd done maintenance on the Charger. She lost herself in the work and was just finishing up an oil change, wiping her hands when she heard the scuff of boots on the driveway._

_She looked up to find Dom standing there, white t-shirt stretched over his muscles, wearing the new work boots they'd sent with Vince. Nothing he'd brought into the prison would have fit him anymore. It still struck Letty how much bigger he'd gotten._

_She realized suddenly that she was staring and she set down the cloth in her hands, stepping out from behind the car._

"_Dom…" she breathed and he was taking the few steps towards her and then she was in his arms, holding on for all she was worth._

_For what seemed like eternity they stood there, wrapped up each other, not saying a word. Just absorbing the feel of each other. She couldn't get over the fact that he was right here, with her. Home… it finally felt right, felt whole._

_His hand tangled in her hair, which she'd let grow and hadn't bothered blowing out this morning. He leaned in close so their noses brushed together, and she felt his breath against her lips and she grinned, hands fisting at the hem of his shirt behind his back._

"_You have no idea how damn good you feel," he murmured, nuzzling behind her ear. "God, I've missed you. Missed touching you…"_

_She'd missed him too, and even the naughtiest dreams her mind conjured up were nothing but tortuous reminders of how much it sucked to be without her man. The celibacy routine was certainly not for her._

"_Touch me now," she told him and he reached back to tug the garage door shut. _

_It fell with a bang but neither of them noticed as Dom claimed her lips in a hungry kiss. There was no slow build. She wanted him without him having to touch her. Letty yanked his shirt up over his head and slid her hands over the broad spread of his chest. Gasped as he kissed his way down her throat, hands cupping her breasts through her t-shirt and bra. She arched into his touch, fingers making quick work of his belt buckle._

_He groaned against her skin as she slid the leather through his pant loops and tossed it to the floor. Her shirt joined his on the floor and he paused to survey the black lace of her bra._

"_Dom…" she complained, then bit down on her lower lip as his tongue teased her nipple through the lace._

_She dragged her nails down his back, fingers digging into his hips. Dom's hands shaped the curve of her ass, lifting her up to set her on one of the workbenches. She spread her legs and drew him against her as he lifted his head to kiss her again, deeper. She swept her tongue into his mouth, clutching at his back as he unclasped her bra and slipped it off, tossing it over his shoulder._

"_Fuck…" she whimpered, grinding her hips against his with impatience. "Dom, I can't wait any longer."_

_He unbuttoned her jeans and slid down the zipper. Then lifted her hips to slide the denim down over them and tugged them off her legs, leaving her sitting in only a pair of black lacy underwear. She gazed at him with dark, hooded eyes and grinned slyly, hooking her thumbs under the waistband and wiggling them off. She kicked them to the floor._

"_Lose the pants," she ordered with a purr._

_He grinned at her slowly as he undid the pants, then stepped out of them. She let her gaze slide over his body slowly, reached for him when he stepped back towards her, wrapped her hand around him, feeling his groan rumble through his chest as he slid his hands up her thighs to rest on his hips. She kissed him deeply, legs wrapping around his waist as he pressed against her. Threw her head back as he slid into her, hands clenching at his back as he pressed his face against her throat, both of them breathing heavily._

_She dug her heel into the back of his thigh and moaned his name as he began to move, thrusting into her slowly. Letty took Dom's face in her hands and kissed him, moaning into his mouth as he arched into her deeply. She reached behind her, sweeping the tools off the bench to clatter to the floor, then lay back on the unfinished wood. Braced one arm against the wall behind her, her hips flexing up to meet his thrusts. Dom tangled one hand in her hair, burying his face against her throat, murmuring her name against her skin, his other hand on her hip, fingers bruising as he fucked her._

_She was so close, nails scratching at his back, digging into his hips and ass, urging him deeper, murmuring mindlessly in both English and Spanish. Then all the sudden he stilled, hands braced on either side of her as the garage door slammed open and Mia's voice filtered in._

"_What are you guys doing out he- Oh my god!" _

_The door promptly slammed shut again with her shouting an apology._

_Letty groaned softly, biting down on her lower lip to stifle her laughter. _

"_Very funny," Dom muttered, sliding one hand down her thigh to lift her leg, knee bent over his shoulder._

_Letty gasped, her body clenching tightly around him. It wasn't very hard to forget about Mia's interruption and finish what they'd started._

Amused as hell, Letty slid off the bed as she heard the approaching sound of the Charger's engine. She went down the stairs, passing the living room where Brian and Mia were cuddled up together in front of a movie. She ducked into the kitchen just as Dom stepped in through the back door.

He grinned widely as she wrapped her arms around him and leaned up to pull him into a deep kiss, nibbling at his lower lip. Nuzzling at his throat she smiled slyly.

"So where _h_a_sn't _Mia walked in on us having sex?" she asked and he laughed.

"Not many places," he admitted, kissing at her ear "The kitchen?"

"Oh goody," she said. "And we're already in it."

He leaned down to kiss her again, his hands framing her face and sweeping back into her dark hair. She murmured into his mouth, hands sliding up his arms to his shoulders. She laughed when she felt his hands squeeze the curve of her ass and lift her up.

"Some things never change," she murmured, slipping her arms around his shoulders and pressing a kiss just behind his ear. "Like your obsession with my ass."

"It's an amazing ass, what can I say?" He sat her up on the counter and kissed her again.

He still smelled like oil and car exhaust from a day working at the garage, but she found it an unbelievable turn on. She opened her mouth to grant access to his tongue, relishing in the taste of him, the feel of his callused fingers rubbing at the soft skin just above the waistline of her pants.

"You know," he murmured breathlessly, pulling back from their kisses. "Mia is going to kill us if we have sex in the kitchen…"

"Oh well," she grinned, hooking her fingers into his shirt and pulling him back to her. "At least we'll enjoy our last moments."

And enjoy they did.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Okay so I wanted to do a memory about Letty as a child and I decided to do a happy memory with her father. However this chapter is both really sad and a little bit sappy… So be warned. As always I welcome your thoughts and comments. Thanks for reading and a special thanks to all of you who review. It really makes it worth writing these! Enjoy!

_Family Was, Family Is_

It wasn't the memory that made her cry, not really.

And yet it was still the reason she found herself sitting on the bathroom floor at two am with her face pressed into her hands and teeth biting her knuckles to try and stifle the sobs that shook her shoulders. And the rational part of her brain knew that her tears were two decades old, even though deep down the pain of loss never really went away.

She didn't even look up when the door clicked open, shoulders hunched where she was sitting with her back against the wall beside the tub. Her bare legs bent in front of her, wearing only the oversized t-shirt of Dom's she'd snagged from the floor after waking from the dream that was a memory.

She didn't lift her head when she felt the gentle touch of his big hand in the crown of her hair, only pressed her fists more tightly against her eyes, fingers, cheeks and chin damp from tears. Her shoulders trembled as he closed the door and sat beside her, his back against it. His fingers slid into the strands of her hair and she shifted, her muscles feeling sore and her butt numb from sitting so long, to rest her head against his shoulder. She sniffed slightly, muscles trembling briefly, but it seemed at last her tears were spent.

Her eyes felt swollen and her head hurt, but she felt calmer now, soothed by the gentle motion of Dom stroking her hair. He didn't say anything, didn't ask anything. There were no demands. Just quiet acceptance.

Letty leaned into him, wrapping her arm around his waist as he drew her against him. His palm cupped her shoulder, traced the curve of her back, rubbing gently. He pressed his lips against her temple.

She swallowed, her throat feeling scratchy and dry, rubbing at her eyes with her free hand. Then she let them fall shut, her lashes spiky from dampness.

"Would you believe I remembered something happy?" she finally asked, turning her head to press her nose against Dom's shoulder.

His hand stilled in her hair, tangled amongst the strands.

"What did you remember?" he ventured, his voice a low rumble that she could feel where she was pressed against him.

"My dad," she replied, her voice tight with emotion. She let a long breath shudder out of her. "I know that he's been gone for years but…"

"It's okay to still miss him, Letty."

She smiled slightly, dropping her head. "Like you miss your father?"

"Every day. You know that." He wrapped his arms around her.

"I know," she agreed, tracing her fingers along the hem of the shirt she wore. She bit down on her lower lip, then smiled a little. "I think he would have liked you… my dad that is."

He chuckled softly. "You sure? He might have come after me with a shotgun more than a couple of times."

"Okay well… maybe when I was like 16…" she agreed, grinning at him.

"I guess that's only understandable," he murmured, kissing her forehead. "Tell me about him."

"Haven't I before?" She looked up at him, brow furrowed.

"You have. Doesn't mean I don't want to hear it now."

She smiled, tilting her head to tuck beneath his chin, curled against him. His big hand cupped the curve of her back, held her close. Maybe it was silly they were still sitting on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night, but she didn't care. She felt safe and loved and she didn't want to move.

"He was into cars when he was younger. Guess that's where I got it," she began, fingers brushing against Dom's chest through the material of his t-shirt. "And even though he joined the Army when he turned 18 he still got to work on engines. Just bigger ones."

"He was a driver in the service, I remember," he murmured the words against her hair.

"Yeah, later on. He started off as a mechanic though. Worked mostly on the tanks and armored vehicles."

"_Letty," her father called, beckoning her to where he stood beside a monstrous metal thing. "Come have a look."_

_It was a tank. And she'd seen them before. But today all the families on base got to go and see how their soldier's worked. She got to go with Papi all day. Mami wasn't there. She still had to work at her own job, waiting tables. But it was nice to not have to sit in the restaurant all day trying to entertain herself with coloring or stupid books. Sometimes when it was really busy she could sneak out to the alley and play games, or go back into the kitchen and listen to the music with the dishwashers. It was better when Mami dropped her off at base daycare to play with the other kids. But last week she'd gotten into a fight and Mami said she had to take a break from daycare for a while._

_But today she got to go to work with Papi, so none of that mattered._

_She went to his side, staring up at the big metal vehicle. At eight years old she knew she wasn't a little baby anymore, but she felt really small standing next to the tank. _

_Papi climbed up on the front and then lifted her after him. She stared down at the green metal beneath her boots, studying the rivets that held it all together. Papi's friend Darrel, who worked with him, popped his head out of the latch at the top and waved to her. She giggled and waved back._

"_Want to see inside Leticia?" he asked._

_She nodded. Papi picked her up and passed her to Darrel who helped her climb down into the tank behind him. _

_Inside it looked smaller than she thought, with lights and buttons and switches everywhere. There was a tiny slot at the front which the driver had to look through to see. And there was a big computer screen near one of the chairs. Darrel explained that was the radar, which they used to spot targets. _

_Papi came down to the tank too, while Darrel showed her how to shoot the tank's big gun. Then Papi sat in the driver's seat and lifted her into his lap. He showed her how he made the tank go, using the pedals on the ground and the levers next to him. The tank didn't have a steering wheel like a car. It just had so many buttons and gauges that it made her head spin!_

"_Papi how do you know what to do?" she asked._

"_Lots of practice mija." He smiled, dropping a kiss a top her head._

"_Can I drive it?"_

"_Not the tank, baby. Papi would get in trouble. But when you're a little bigger Papi will show you how to drive a car."_

_She grinned at that, turning to look up at him. "Yay!"_

"_We will just have to keep it a secret from Mami," he whispered into her hair, pressing a kiss to her cheek._

_She hugged him tight, safe in his arms, happy. Papi always knew how to make her happy._

"It was just a little thing… you know?" she murmured, her eyes feeling heavy now. She could hear the sound of Dom's heartbeat where her head was resting against his chest.

"They make all the difference," he answered.

She smiled a little, sighing. "I guess it was just… realizing that I'll never see him again. That I'd forgotten him… I'd forgotten how much it hurt that he wasn't around. But I'd also forgotten how much I'd loved him."

"Gotta remember the loss to appreciate what you have."

She tightened her arms around him, silent for a moment. There were so many wonderful memories with her father. He'd worked so hard to support them, but he'd always tried to make time for her. Even if it was just a little thing like taking her to the park on Sunday afternoons, or letting her help him in the garage when their old car broke down. When Mami would drink too much and Papi would take her out for ice cream and leave her with the neighbors till he could get Mami sobered up. He'd done his best to shield her, and he hadn't been perfect. But he'd always made her feel safe and loved.

"I don't know if I told you this," she said softly, yawning into Dom's chest. "After he died… I didn't really feel… safe anymore. I didn't feel like there was anyone I could count on. Not till I met you and Mia."

He smiled, slipping his arm under her legs, the other behind her back. He slowly stood, lifting her in his arms. She rested her head against his shoulder with a grin.

"It's annoying how easily you can do that," she muttered.

He chuckled and pressed his lips to her forehead. "I'm glad you feel safe here, Letty. You are, you know?"

"I know," she agreed. "And I'm happy too, even though… well I just had a crying binge in the bathroom that might say otherwise." She wrinkled her nose. With anyone else, even Mia, she might have been embarrassed. But Dom didn't make a big deal out of it and no one else knew her better.

"You were probably overdue," he said, carrying her back to their bedroom.

"Since when do I cry?"

"Not often enough. Always trying to be tough." He laid her on the bed.

"Look who's talking," she laughed as he crawled into bed beside her. She slipped her arms around his waist, hands inching up under his t-shirt to press against his warm skin.

Dom's hand slid up her thigh to rest against the curve of her ass and he buried his face in her hair as she wound herself around him.

"Feeling better?" he asked after a beat, when her eyes had just drifted closed.

She didn't open them, only nodded, smiling against his chest. "Mia would probably say… that I needed a good cry. And maybe she'd be right. But I think there's something I needed more."

"What's that?" he asked, studying the shape of her curled around him, one hand on her hip, the other tracing idle patterns on her shoulder blade.

"You. To remind me that I still have a family that loves me. And… that doesn't mean I love my dad any less, or that I miss him any less. It just makes it easier to bear."

He kissed her then, with tenderness that made her open her eyes and gaze into his. Then she rested her head against his chest, and drifted off to sleep, holding onto those happy memories with fondness.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: Okay this memory relates to another scar memory. Mia and Letty doing crazy things when they were younger. This also involves time with the whole family. Enjoy!

_Races, Cops and Tacos_

Mia had suggested a trip to one of their favorite places for lunch. So they'd piled into the cars and driven down to Boyle Heights, where the little Taco shop was. A narrow, bright green building with an intense mural along the outside wall where a little patio had been set up under a metal awning. The tables were all different shapes the chairs mismatched colors. People would order at the counter and carry their Styrofoam containers out to the patio, digging in with their plastic forks or with their hands – eating homemade empanadas, spicy enchiladas doused in red sauce, or pork tacos topped with fresh pico de gallo and a squeeze of lime juice.

They parked along the curb where there were already a few cars and went into the little shop. The smell of cooking meat and spices greeted them and the lady behind the counter waved a greeting, chattering in Spanish as she fixed their orders. They paid and carried the containers to the patio, pushing two square tables together before sitting down.

Letty gazed out beyond the patio as she sipped at her water. Down the street there were more buildings like this one, brightly colored and decorated with the work of street-artists. A way to celebrate the kind of graffiti that could be beautiful, while also discouraging taggers who would cover whatever empty surface they could find in neighborhoods like these.

Further down the street a tiny, Spanish-style building that was the local church stood. It had a steeple with an arched window through which she could see the old bronze bell that would be rung to signal service. The sign out front was in Spanish, welcoming all to worship.

Beyond the church there was a corner park with a basketball court and a struggling square of grass and an ancient swing set. The main road ran past there, winding off between colorful buildings and auto shops.

Letty lifted the taco to take a bite, pulling her attention away from the perusal of their surroundings to the conversation around them. Mia was laughing as she held her food out of Jack's reach.

"I know it smells good but you're not ready for this kind of food yet," she told him.

"Kid knows what he wants," Dom said with a grin. "Tacos and a Charger."

"Very funny," Brian replied.

Letty couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head.

"How did you find this place?" Brian asked. "It's not near the house really… or the garage. Seems a bit out of the way."

"Letty and I found it," Mia said, grinning at her friend. "Do you remember?"

Letty blinked at her, chewing at her taco slowly as she puzzled over the question for a moment. She furrowed her brow slightly.

"We came here because…" She lifted her gaze to stare over at Mia in surprise. "I wrecked my car."

"How did you do that?" Brian asked.

"Well… it all started as it usually did… with a street race…"

_They were usually at a race every weekend. It was just that once you started racing, once you got a taste of that adrenaline, it was nearly impossible to stop. And even if you weren't actually driving in the race, there was still the thrill of watching, of being there. Because they knew the cops could show up and try to bust them. The threat of getting caught was always a thrill, no matter what it was you were doing._

_Maybe that was why Mia accused her of being an exhibitionist._

_This week the meet up location was in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood that had a certain bad reputation. But to Letty it was like any other working class neighborhood. There were good people just trying to get by, and there were some criminals. But even Hollywood Hills had its criminals. They just put on a different face._

_Mia had ridden along with her as usual, though Vince and Dom were also there, in their own rides. The Torino Cobra she was driving still needed some work to be ready for her to race, but she'd been putting some serious wrench time into it. _

_She wouldn't have said it was her dream car, but she had always been fond of the classic American muscle cars. Sure she'd tried her hand at the imports, and she could agree they took their turns more easily, but there was something about the roar of the engine in a classic. Something about the way it felt around her._

_Driving down in Boyle Heights was easy because most of the people wouldn't call to report them. Most of the people living here didn't want the attention of the police, for one reason or another. And a lot of them didn't think there was much harm in kids racing their fancy cars down a strip of road. All the better if they did it at night when people weren't on the streets to get hurt._

_Letty and Mia had sat together on the sidelines watching, on the hood of the Torino. It was a hot night, so they were both wearing shorts – Letty's denim cut-offs that she paired with a black racer back tank top and studded black sneakers. Mia was wearing bright red cuffed shorts and a white halter top with red polka dots on it. They looked nearly like polar opposites, sitting side by side, but everyone who knew them knew they were best friends._

_Both Vince and Dom were racing that night, and the girls hated that because they knew that Vince would be in a shitty mood for the rest of the night when he lost. He wasn't as good of a driver as Dom, even though he sometimes liked to delude himself. But Letty could kick his ass too, and had._

"_Maybe we should take him out for a drink afterwards," Mia suggested._

"_Then we'll have to haul his drunk ass home," Letty said, shaking her head. "We're better off just letting him get wasted at the house."_

"_But then I have to clean up and he'll probably start a fight, which Dom will have to break up."_

"_And if that happens then there goes _my _night of celebratory sex."_

"_That's disgusting!" Mia groaned. "I don't want to hear about that."_

"_Please you're the one who asked me what it was like to lose my virginity."_

"_That was because it wasn't about my _brother!" _Mia wrinkled her nose. "And I kind of needed to know."_

"_You said that kid Travis didn't even last long enough for penetration anyway," Letty reminded her. "So you didn't even need to know till a whole year later."_

"_Shut up. Aren't we watching the race?"_

"_Soon to be at least," Letty said, looking over to see that the start was being signaled for. It was only Dom and Vince at the starting line. The boys were going head to head. Letty let out a long sigh. "Vince is going to get his ass kicked."_

"_Unless Dom lets him win…"_

"_Please your brother will not let him win." Letty laughed. _

_Mia nodded in agreement. It was true that Dom had something of an ego issue. The girls watched as a skimpily dressed blonde on the sidelines waved a little white flag, then tossed it down to signal the start of the race. Engines gunned and they sped off._

"But they didn't even get to finish the race," Letty said, folding up her second taco as she looked over at Brian.

She spared a glance to Dom, catching him grinning over his food. "You know I woulda won," he said.

"Didn't we just get finished saying we knew that?" Mia asked, laughing. "Still got that ego."

"And no one is surprised," Letty replied with a grin, reaching over to tickle Jack's little belly. "Anyway. They'd just taken off when we heard the sirens."

"The cops?" Brian asked. "You didn't have someone on the scanners?"

"We had an _idiot _on the scanners," Dom told him, shaking his head. "Vince and I were halfway done with the race before we realized people were racing after us and something was going on. Luckily we had a head start so we booked it home pretty fast. Didn't see a single police car."

"How does this relate to finding this place?" Brian queried. "That's what I really want to know."

Mia laughed. "Remember, Letty wrecked her car…"

_The sirens barely preceded the flash of red and blue lights that had Letty cursing and sliding off the hood of her car. She yanked the driver's side door open as Mia hurried to the other side. She was sliding in and buckling up as cars around her were taking off. She pulled her door shut, turned the key in the ignition and slammed on the gas. She was peeling out into the street before Mia had her door shut all the way. Rubber squealed on the pavement and sirens blared behind them, flooding the car with red and blue flashing lights._

_She grit her teeth and turned down a side-street, shifting up with a slam on the clutch. Two of the cop cars pursued and Mia turned her head to watch them. _

"_Shit," she muttered. "I really don't want to spend the night in jail."_

"_Me and you both, girl," Letty replied, taking a sharp turn down an alley that had the back of her car slamming against a wall. She winced. She could fix it._

_She also may have hit several trash cans on her way out the other end of the alley, but she didn't stop to think about it, wrenching the wheel as she turned down a darkened street. Beside her, Mia was holding onto the door handle tightly, continuously looking behind them to see if they'd lost the cops. The flashing lights suggested they had not. _

"_Do you know where we are?" Mia asked, sounding somewhat panicked._

"_Of course I do," Letty asserted, but she was less than certain. _

_There were no street lights here, or most of them had burnt out. The walls were coated in graffiti, names and gang signs and physically improbable suggestions. This was probably not the best place for them to be right now. Letty took another side street, hoping that she could circle around to the highway._

_She came out on a two-lane street that looked like it was leading back to the city center. There were no houses, only tiered retaining walls alongside the road. The problem was that this pinned them in and the cops were still following behind them. All that trouble for one street racer, she wondered. Up ahead she saw the back of a high building._

"_Shit," she muttered._

_Mia was looking around. "It looks like there's a service road on the other side of the wall… we can double back and look for an entrance."_

"_We double-back we run into the damn cops, Mi."_

_Letty looked down at her car for a moment. "Sorry baby," she muttered, then turned the wheel to back up._

"_What are you doing?" Mia asked._

"_Get your head down," Letty ordered, then she gunned the engine, slamming on the gas. _

_The Torino hit a pile of crate lids stacked up against a dumpster, careening through the air and she almost thought for a second they'd go right over the retaining wall. But instead they crashed through it._

_The windshield shattered inwards and Letty pressed her eyes shut as little shards scratched against her face. Mia was screaming in the passenger seat, her head between her legs. She could hear the crunch of the car's body and the crumbling of the stone and she felt a sharp stabbing pain in her shoulder but then the car hit the ground with a bounce and she opened her eyes to find they'd made it onto the service road. She upshifted and peeled away, thankful that the cop lights were no longer in her field of vision._

_Mia slowly sat up, brushing glass out of her hair. She looked around. The front windshield was mostly gone. The side mirrors were sheared off, and she was certain that the body itself would be damaged. But they'd gotten away._

"_Oh my god," Mia squeaked, looking at her. "Letty you have a big piece of glass stuck in your shoulder."_

"_Let me find a place to pull over," she muttered, as the Torino's engine sputtered. "I don't know how much further this baby is gonna get us."_

_The car had gotten them another three miles, then broken down on a side-street near a neighborhood park. Mia scooted over to pull the glass from her arm, then used a tank top she found in the back seat, wrinkling her nose and saying she didn't want to know why it was there, to tie the injury shut._

_They left the car and walked the block and a half to the little taco shop, which was the only place open this time of night. Mia, being the less injured of the two, went in to call Dom, then ordered them some tacos. They sat outside on the patio to wait for their ride._

"You're crazy," Brian laughed. "You decided the best way out was _through _a wall?"

"Be quiet there, O'Connor. I've seen some of the stunts you've pulled," Letty replied with a grin. "You have _no _room to talk."

He smiled back at her, and then shrugged, admitting that she was right. Jack gurgled from his mother's lap and Brian reached out to stroke his little hand.

"I'll be honest. I hope Jack doesn't do any of that crazy stuff when he gets older," he said.

Mia hugged her baby.

Letty looked at Brian, then exchanged a glance with Dom. "Well… he _is _a Toretto," she said.

"And an O'Connor," Dom added. "Seems like either way, odds are pretty good he will."


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Note: Okay this is a chapter where Letty remembers Jesse and it's sad and I'm sorry. Not as sad as the chapter about her dad I think but it depends on you also. Well, I hope you guys enjoy it anyway. Thanks so much for reading, following, favoriting and all the wonderful reviews.

_Jesse_

With everything that she didn't remember about her life, the one thing that she hadn't ever forgotten was cars. Maybe that was why the days spent working at the garage were so relaxing. Even days when they were swamped with work and she was up to her elbows in grease she was at ease. Here there were no questions. There was no confusion over where something was or what something was. The garage felt familiar from the very moment she set foot into it. Even in the first weeks she'd been home before she remembered anything.

Now she had little snippets. She could remember her first car, that her father had helped her build out of wood when she was seven. She would race it down the hills near her grandmother's house. It was how she'd broken her arm. She could remember the first time she'd kissed Dom, sitting on the back stoop of his house, where they'd spent half the night talking instead of enjoying the party going on inside. She could remember the time she'd dragged Mia out to a horror movie and then been forced to spend the night in her room because her friend was so terrified.

There was more she remembered.

But there was still a lot that she hadn't.

She looked up from her work to see Dom and Brian bent over some sort of schematic in deep discussion. Mia had already taken Jack home for the afternoon. Wiping her hands on a rag Letty grabbed her water bottle and wandered outside for some air. It was hot in the garage, but out here there was a bit of a breeze.

She took a deep breath, then frowned as she caught a familiar smell in the air. She may not have all of her memories but pot was a very distinctive scent. It had been a lot of years since she'd smoked it herself, and even then it had only been rarely, from what she could remember. Most people either detested the smell or loved it. Letty didn't really care much either way. She'd gotten used to it when….

Her mind blanked for a moment as she strolled down to the sidewalk.

There a kid was sitting by himself, a joint pinched between his fingers, black nail polish on his fingers, baggy black jeans, dirty grey t-shirt, a black beanie on his head. Scrawny, pale kid bouncing his leg unconsciously as he took another drag.

Her boots scuffed against the walk and he looked up, startled, dropped his hand behind his back, looking up at her with wide eyes. He took in her appearance, the white tank top streaked with dirt and grease, the grey work-pants and her ancient, scuffed up combat boots. She tossed him a grin and raised a brow.

"What? You think I'm gonna call the cops?"

He studied her a moment, a dubious look on his young face before he raised the joint to his lips and took another drag.

"You never know about adults," he muttered.

"You remind me of someone." It was out of her mouth before she realized it.

The kid looked at her blankly, dropping the remains of his smoke to the ground and stamping it out with his foot. He pushed himself to his feet and he was taller than her when standing, just barely.

"Thanks for not calling the cops, lady." He grinned, then waved as he sauntered away.

Letty watched him go, the smell of pot still lingering in the air. She furrowed her brows, sitting down on the curb he'd abandoned. She stared down at her hands, fingernails unpainted, grease caught under their short tips. She rested her hands on her knees and gazed out at the street. Across from the garage there was a tire shop and the back of a tall apartment building that some kid had tagged, the city had painted over with white only for it to be tagged again.

"_You'd think the city would find better ways to spend their money."_

A voice from her past echoed and she blinked slowly, grasping at the threads of the memory.

_A wisp of smoke curled in front of her face in the hazy sky of LA's dusk. The sun was setting, painting everything in orange and yellow, caught in the sheen of smog that hovered over the city. The cement curb she sat on was still warm beneath her from the sunny August day. _

_Two sets of boots, side-by-side. Hers – brown work-boots splattered with grease. And Jesse's black combat boots, scuffed and scarred to hell, covered by the tattered hems of his jeans. His leg, perpetually bouncing when he wasn't focused (which was most of the time), his black-tipped fingers grasping a joint that he offered to her._

_She took it, raising it to her lips for a short drag before passing it back. She had to drive home, after all. And she wasn't exactly well-behaved but she wasn't stupid either. Driving under the influence meant she could damage her car, after all._

"_They have lots of ways to waste time and money," she said, stretching out her legs in front of her._

_Jesse chuckled, then sighed and looked over at her. "Hey Letty, can I ask you something?"_

_She glanced at him. "Sure. You know you can."_

"_I was thinking… of you know… taking my test to get my GED."_

_She blinked at him, at a loss for a moment. "Really? That's great. But what do you want to ask me about?"_

"_Well you took it didn't you?"_

"_A couple years ago… But you're not asking for study help are you because you'd be better off hitting up Mia for that shit."_

"_No," he laughed, shaking his head. "I just… do you think it makes a difference? Do you feel like it was worth it to get it?"_

_She frowned, scuffing her boot against the pavement. "I guess it depends on why you're getting it, Jess." She dragged a hand through her hair. "I did it… to prove something to myself." _

"_What do you mean?" _

"_I always wanted to drop out of high school. I thought it was BS. But I didn't actually leave school until I had to, when I was running the garage and Dom was in jail. And yeah maybe… school wasn't for me at the time but there's something… satisfying about having that piece of paper. Not because it's significant, but because it meant I didn't give up." She wrinkled her nose. "Sounds like crap, doesn't it?"_

"_No." He grinned at her. "I think I understand. I tried at school… you know? I just couldn't focus. And I hated the pills. They made me… not feel like me."_

"_If you want to get your GED you can do it Jess. We know you'll ace the math part." She laughed._

"_That's true. I might ask Mia's help for the rest… maybe. I'll look into it. Thanks."_

"_No problem." She smiled. "I'm just surprised you asked me and not Dom."_

"_He'd tell me to do it just because he always wants people to… do that kind of stuff. Like he makes Mia go to school." Jesse shrugged. "Plus I don't want to disappoint him, you know?"_

"_I hear you. I don't think any of us want to," she agreed._

_She put her arm around him and he smiled. She felt protective of him. Like he was the little brother she'd never had and never known she'd wanted. Standing, Letty rubbed a hand over the beanie on his head._

"_Let me know what you decide to do," she said, then walked back up to the garage to help close up for the night._

She remembered he had decided to take the test. Not long before they'd taken on the hijackings in LA. Every Saturday he'd meet Mia at the library to study. It had been a plan to surprise Dom once he'd passed.

He'd never gotten the chance. Thanks to Johnny Tran.

She could still remember his smiling face. The way he'd light up when he would talk about cars or engines. How shyly proud he was when he would get praise from anyone… especially Dom. How much he hadn't wanted to disappoint him.

Letty stared down at her hands and closed her eyes against the burning tears, let out a long breath and dropped her head.

"Letty?" Dom's voice broke through the haze of sadness and loss and she lifted her head to look up.

"What's wrong?" he asked, lowering himself beside her with a little groan.

She chuckled softly. "Getting old?"

"I think I'm just taller since the last time I sat on a sidewalk."

She smiled slightly, then looked back down at her hands. "I just was… thinking about… Remembering Jesse."

Dom was silent, and his silence was filled with his own sense of sorrow and loss.

Letty glanced over at him, shifting closer on the curb. She leaned against him and he wrapped his arm around her. His hand cupped her shoulder, fingers rubbing the bare skin there idly. It was a dual sort of comfort they took in one another, neither of them saying anything for a long time.

"He was just a kid," Dom finally murmured. "And I can't help but feel like… I failed him."

Letty looked up at him in surprise, wrapping her arm around his waist. "It wasn't anyone's fault but Tran's."

"I should have been watching out for Jesse," Dom insisted. "I shouldn't have let him make that bet."

She chuckled softly, resting her head against his shoulder. "There you go again. Dom… you have to let people make their own choices… and take the responsibility for those choices. In the end it was Tran's fault… what happened to Jesse. There was no need to gun him down like that, in cold blood." She shook her head. "Don't look back on him and feel guilty."

She lifted her head, letting out a little sigh. "He was happy here… you know. It was better here for him than it had been at home."

"I know," he agreed.

"I miss him too," she said softly.

Dom pressed a kiss against the top of her head and held her close as they sat together on the curb, watching the sun set over the LA skyline. Both of them remembering a family member they had lost too young.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note: Okay this is another Mia/Letty moment and baby Jack is in this one. Oh so adorable. This is a very light, sweet chapter. Which you need after the Jesse memory and before the next one which I'm working on which is proving to be a bit rough. So enjoy this one!

_My Family_

Jack didn't want to walk.

He preferred to crawl. Maybe it was because he was the fastest thing you ever saw on all fours. He would race across the carpet and speed through the house, laughing as his diaper rustled. Mia had baby-proofed the entire downstairs of the house and put up a baby-gate near the bottom of the steps, so she didn't worry about if he crawled out of her sight. Which frequently happened, given how fast he would take off.

This morning she set him on the kitchen floor with a rattle as she went to start breakfast. Brian was up in the shower and Dom and Letty still hadn't appeared from their bedroom. Jack burbled up at her, shaking his rattle.

"Mama," he cooed and she smiled down at him as she cracked eggs into a bowl.

"That's right my little man," she replied, leaning down to smooth a hand over his blond hair.

Jack grinned widely, then chucked his rattle across the room. He put his hands down on the linoleum, and then he was off, speeding out of the kitchen into the living room.

Mia shook her head with a smile, then set down her whisk, making to go after him.

"Hey there little guy," Letty's voice drifted from the other room. "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

Mia smiled and went back to her cooking. She looked up a moment later when Letty appeared in the doorway, holding Jack against her hip.

"Look who I found," she smiled.

She was still dressed in her pajamas, a pair of black cotton shorts and a worn high school t-shirt that was too big, so it had to be Dom's. Jack was grabbing a fistful of her dark hair.

Mia shook her head. "Uh-uh. No pulling," she warned and he smiled sweetly, snuggling his head against Letty's shoulder.

Her friend moved to look at what she was making. "Oooh, French toast."

"Mmm hmmm," Mia grinned. "And sausage."

"Sounds delicious. Do I smell coffee?" she asked.

Mia nodded, tilting her head to the coffee pot sitting on the counter beside her. "Help yourself."

Letty fetched a mug from the cabinet and poured half a cup, which she left black and carried over to the table.

"Is Dom awake?" Mia asked.

"Yeah he just wanted to take a quick shower."

"Knowing you two I'm surprised he's taking it alone." Mia grinned.

Letty rolled her eyes. "Please, Brian just used most of the hot water. Cold showers are not sexy."

"Okay that's true," Mia agreed. In fact, cold showers were the opposite of sexy. She looked over at her friend as she unwrapped the sausages to fry. "How are things with you guys?"

Letty sat down at the table, looking at her in surprise. "Good. I mean… most of the time."

"It probably helps that you've started to remember a lot," Mia said.

"Yeah, that obviously does. There's still blank spots… but I don't feel as lost as I had."

"That's good." Mia smiled, placing the sausages into the pan where they sizzled away, filling the kitchen with the spicy smell of cooking meat. "Honestly, Letty, I'm just glad you're back home… that you're alive. Everything will come back to you eventually. Having you here… it's made us whole again."

Letty dropped her head slightly, feeling embarrassed by Mia's words. She rested her cheek against the top of Jack's head and he patted at her face, cooing. She smiled and hugged him.

"It's strange, you know," Letty murmured. "When I was with Owen and his team I always felt so… blank. I didn't care about whatever we were doing because I just did my job and I did what I had to. I wasn't really that close to any of them. Some of them… I liked. But it wasn't like you guys. It wasn't a family. Owen didn't care if we lived or died at the end of the day, except that dying might slightly inconvenience him. And he made it pretty clear that he thought the best thing about me was that I had no memories. Because he could… mold me. How sick is that?" She looked over at her friend. "He didn't look at me and see a person. He looked at me and saw a tool."

"He was a terrible man," Mia agreed softly. "I'm glad he's dead."

"But it was strange that I never realized it… not till Dom and the others showed up. Not till Dom raced against me and told me all these things… about this girl I couldn't remember being but he said I still was. How when he looked at me he saw her."

"He saw you," Mia corrected, smiling.

"At the time I couldn't remember being me."

"But you still were," Mia insisted. "Even if you didn't remember most things, you were still Letty. Do you think it was a coincidence you knew your way around cars, you drove the same way, you went to street races? The part of you that Owen didn't have any say over… that part of you was still the same. Dom never doubted it."

Letty looked thoughtful for a moment, taking a sip of her coffee.

"I always figured the driving and stuff… that was all muscle memory. That my mind couldn't remember but my body could. Like riding a bike, you know?"

Mia nodded slowly. "That's true. Sure you can explain away some of it to that. But you can't explain away your personality."

"Mia I was running with Owen Shaw. The Letty I remember now would never have done that."

"She wouldn't have _had _to. That's the difference," her friend said, pulling the sausages out of the pan to drain. "You didn't have anything else. Owen made sure of that."

"When we were just running jobs it was fine. But when people started dying…" Letty trailed off, pressing a kiss against the top of Jack's head.

The little boy had put his feet on her legs and was holding onto her shoulder to stand on wobbly legs. She grinned.

"He's getting so big," she commented.

Mia grinned. "I know. Not too much longer before he'll be a year old."

"I wish I'd seen him when he was born," Letty lamented, glancing at Mia. "I would have wanted to be there with you."

"I had Brian and Dom, of course," Mia replied. "But I definitely missed having you there." She looked at her son. "You know if we'd had a girl… we were going to name her after you."

Letty's eyes went wide. "What? Seriously?"

"Yeah. Though honestly I'm glad that we had a boy. Dom was still in a bad place when he was born. He was trying but…"

Letty smiled at her a little sadly. "Well since I'm not dead it would also end up being confusing."

"That's true," Mia agreed. "And well, naming him after Dad meant a lot to all of us."

"He would be proud of you," Letty said.

"I know. Even with everything… I think he would be proud of us all." Mia sighed. "I think the thing we learned from Dad that's meant the most to us is how important family is."

"You always knew that," Letty said with a smile. "You were always taking care of everyone."

"Well someone had to." Mia laughed.

"I think you were practicing for all the babies you wanted," Letty teased.

Mia groaned. "Don't tell me you remember _that _of all things. How embarrassing."

_It was a weekday night but that didn't mean Letty wasn't at the Toretto house. She was almost always there rather than home. Even if Dom wasn't around or was busy, she could hang with Mia or even Mr. T. He never got annoyed that she was around. In fact he treated her just like one of his own kids, her and Vince had practically been adopted into the family, it seemed. _

_Tonight Dom and Vince were out together. They had to have at least one night a week where the girls weren't around, and in this case, even Letty counted, Vince insisted. She supposed she couldn't blame him. Dom was his best friend and had been for a hell of a long time. _

_And it meant that she had time with her own best friend._

_Lounging on Mia's big bed which was covered in a pretty blue and purple quilt, wearing a tank top and a pair of gym shorts. Mia was sprawled beside her in an oversized t-shirt so long you couldn't see her shorts beneath them. _

_Mia sighed then, stretching._

"_Letty do you ever think about getting married?" she asked._

"_What?" Letty choked slightly and sat up a little. "Mia, are you serious? We're only 16. Why would I think about that?"_

"_Well you've been dating my brother for a while…"_

"_Okay 10 months is not enough for me to be thinking about marrying him. We're still kids, Mi."_

"_But you love him, right?"_

_Looking embarrassed Letty put a hand over her face with a moan. "Why are we talking about this?"_

"_Don't you?"_

"_Yes!" Letty threw her hands up. "Why else would I put up with his bullshit?"_

_Mia laughed softly, looking a little relieved. "Well if you marry Dom we can be sisters for real."_

_Letty wrinkled her nose slightly. "I don't know. Maybe like… far, far in the future. But who knows Mia? That's a long time away still."_

"_You mean you haven't thought about your dream wedding?"_

"_What? No!"_

"_I have," Mia sighed dreamily. "I want to get married outside, somewhere exotic. And I want to have a beautiful dress with lace. Classical, you know?" She grinned and went on. "It doesn't need to be big or with a lot of people; I just want the people I love to be there."_

"_Uh huh…" Letty said with a small grin. "And who's the groom in this dream wedding?"_

"_I don't know yet. But I'll find him," Mia replied. "And then we'll have two kids and maybe a dog…"_

"_Kids and a dog?" Letty laughed. "You have this all planned out don't you?"_

"_Maybe three kids… it depends on how I feel," Mia amended. Then she looked at her friend. "I thought every girl did. I can't believe you don't think about it."_

"_Why not? I'm 16 I don't want kids. I mean have you seen some of the girls at our school who got knocked up? That does not seem like a wise life decision."_

"_I don't want to have babies _now._" Mia laughed. "Just some day. When I'm older."_

"_I guess I just don't think that far into the future," Letty shrugged._

"And now you have one of your babies," Letty said with a grin as Mia started cooking the toast.

"Yeah well, I was 16 years old when I said that so cut me a break," Mia laughed.

"What does that mean you don't want baby number two and a dog anymore?"

"Maybe," Mia sighed. "We'll see if life settles down for a while."

"Yeah you never know with us," Letty agreed.

"What about you? You ever think about it now? Marriage? Kids?"

Letty almost choked on her coffee, then cast a glare at her friend. "Are you serious? I am still getting my memories back, Mi."

"But you love Dom, right?"

"Deja-vu," Letty muttered. "Yeah… I do. And I'm remembering a lot… but still I'd rather be more certain of who exactly I am before I start thinking about stuff like that."

"I understand," Mia agreed. "But I do think Dom would be a _great _dad."

"Of course. He doesn't have to do the pregnancy part," Letty muttered, then grinned. "He would. I don't know. Maybe. Ask me in another year."

Mia laughed. "Deal, in a year." She smiled. "By then I bet you'll remember everything."

"I hope so," Letty agreed, hugging little Jack gently. "And I'll have made lots of new memories, right here with my family."


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Note: Ugh you guys… work is kicking my ass. So exhausted. This chapter took me forever. I'm still a bit paranoid about the damn thing, so I hope you all enjoy it. Writing is going a bit slower lately in general and I think it will till my work schedule eases up a bit.

This chapter is about Dom and Letty's first fight and about how it changed them. I want to thank Karikocha for all her help and input, and MiaToretto86 for putting up with my constant uncertainties with my writing. Also thanks to you guys for reading and reviewing. It's a big part of why I keep writing!

Enjoy!

_Second Chances_

The first fight they'd ever had…

Certainly hadn't been the last. She could remember that now. And though it had been bad, it may not have been the worst.

They'd been so young, so very naïve. That had been a part of it.

And for Dom it had been the first time that a girl had been serious to him. The first time he'd cared more beyond whatever he could get out of it, beyond mere physical pleasure.

Maybe it was because with them it hadn't started with sex. It started and ended with something deeper. And that physical connection would always be there, but so would the emotional one.

She understood him. She could see past his bluster and his ego and she could break through the walls. She saw him with his family, was becoming a part of that family. There were so many deeper levels to the man who was Dominic Toretto. The other girls never knew that. They never saw anything beyond his good looks, his cocky attitude and his victories at the races. For those girls that was enough. One night was enough.

It had needed to be because there was no way they could have held onto him for more.

But Letty was different. Letty wasn't just a girl to have in his bed. She was his friend.

She was his girl.

She was the only girl in the world who could keep up with him. The only girl who was just as fearless, just as daring. And she'd busted her way past his defenses and crawled inside and it had scared him. He would tell her later how much it had scared him. How his feelings for her had scared him.

How it had made him stupid.

His stupidity had almost been the end of them. It had still changed everything, but in the end it had made them stronger.

She could look back on it and see that now.

It had been impossible to see that at the time.

_It was usually never hard to find Dom. Now it was true that they'd only been together for going on two months, but Letty already knew him as well as she knew herself. She didn't really like to put a label on it but she knew it was because they were so alike. _

_Weekday afternoons he was always at the garage, working with his Dad. And after school she'd join them, hating the fact that she'd had to waste her morning over books and assignments, but keeping quiet about it for Dom's dad's sake._

_What struck her the most when she arrived there today, though, was that Dom wasn't at the garage._

_It was startling to Letty not because they'd had plans that he'd bailed on, but just that she could not think of a time when he hadn't been just where she'd expected him to be. And why would he just take off somewhere without letting her know about it?_

_But part of her detested that kind of thinking. She wasn't some clingy girlfriend who always needed to know where her man was. Who needed to spend every waking moment with him. The mere idea disturbed her, and kept her silent all through the afternoon when she was working at the garage._

_It was Mr. Toretto that said something though, glancing at Vince who was uncharacteristically hard at work over an engine._

"_Where the hell is Dominic? I don't remember giving him the day off."_

_Vince just shrugged, not looking up. "I dunno. Busy I guess."_

"_Busy doing what?" Mr. T asked, eyes narrowing. "He hasn't taken off like this in months."_

"_Yeah well… you know Dom," Vince muttered._

"_What's with the vague-ass answers, V?" Letty asked with a laugh._

"_He's probably just at the house," Vince said, refusing to look at her, shoulders hunched._

"_I'll go get him then," she said, tossing down her wrench._

"_Hey, hey," Vince hurried, moving to block her path. "No need to do that. I'm sure he'll be here soon."_

"_Letty's right," Mr. Toretto said softly. "He's overdue. Let her go and get him, Vincent."_

_Vince tensed up slightly, casting a guilty sort of look at her before turning away. Letty couldn't help but wonder what the fuck that was about, but Mr. T tossed her his keys and she cast him a small smile, heading out to the car parked on the street._

_The drive back to the house was short, though she kept tapping her hand on the steering wheel, wondering about Vince's odd behavior. When she pulled up at the house she saw Dom's car in the driveway and parked behind it, getting out._

_Why would he be here instead of at work? Was he sick or something? He'd seemed totally fine that morning. Maybe he'd come home for lunch and lost track of time, or fallen asleep. Probably just needed someone to remind him he was supposed to be at work._

_At least that was what was going through her mind until she saw the girl coming out of the back door._

_Vy Tran was two years ahead of her at school, a senior. She was also the sister of Johnny Tran. She was beautiful, came from a wealthy family and was very popular at school. Letty stared at her and Vy stared back for a moment, blinking slowly. She tugged a hand through her dark hair self-consciously, and Letty took in her disheveled appearance. Vy, for her part, had the good grace to look somewhat embarrassed, and hastily retreated to her car in the street. Letty stood for a moment, rooted to the spot, her mind blank._

_Then she saw red. Hand curled into a fist she stalked a couple of steps after the other girl._

"_Hey!" she snapped._

_Vy turned to look at her, hand on the open door of her car, some tiny little European convertible. She looked wary, and for a minute Letty was pleased that the older girl was scared of her._

"_Please," Letty scathed. "You're not worth the beat down you seem to be expecting. I just wanted to say I hope you're a better lay than a driver, because I doubt it was worth it. All you're going to get out of it is the honor of being one of a dozen other sluts Dominic Toretto has fucked once and never thought about again." She tilted her head. "Or maybe that's why you're already doing the walk of shame. You know, don't you?"_

_Turning she left Tran speechless by her car and made for the house._

_She was going to kill him._

_She stalked up the back steps and slammed open the door. Fury chased through her blood, burning away the pain that stabbed at her._

_Why was she surprised? She shouldn't have been surprised. Dom was a player. Hector had warned her. Everyone had told her._

_What made her think she was different?_

Dom had made her think she was different. She could look back and see that now. That he'd treated her differently from the girls she'd seen him with before. How he valued her opinion. How he listened to her. They talked to one another. About their hopes, their dreams. About their problems. Offered advice, or just a shoulder to cry on. He had supported her, just as she'd supported him.

She had been young, but she'd thought all of that had meant something. She'd believed that _she'd _meant something to him.

_She found him just out of the shower, skin still damp, jeans unbuttoned as he dropped his towel into the laundry room. One look at her expression and his face fell._

"_Let…" he began._

"_Fuck you, Dominic," she hissed, hand curled into a fist. _

_She wanted to punch him, but her eyes stung with tears so she turned away instead, her feet carrying her back the way she'd come._

"_Letty!" Dom went after her, grabbing her by the arm. "Come on. Let's not make this a big deal."_

"_Are you fucking kidding me?" she demanded, whirling on him. She used her wrist to knock his arm away from her. "Don't touch me."_

"_It's not like it meant anything," he said with a shrug, refusing to look her in the eye._

"_What you're saying is that this doesn't mean anything," she replied. "You and me. Or was I just another fuck buddy to you?"_

_Dom looked uncomfortable, rubbing a hand over his head. "Look there's no reason to be so damn serious about this, Let. It's not like we're in a relationship."_

"_Pretty sure _you _defined this as a relationship when you asked me to be your girl," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "Don't make this out like I was making fucking demands of you and penning you in."_

"_Maybe I was feeling penned in anyway," he retorted._

_She stared at him stonily, lifting her chin. "That's on you, Dom. So is this." She shook her head. "If you wanted an open relationship you should have clued me in on that so I knew I could see other guys."_

"_I don't want you seeing other guys!" he snapped._

"_What an unsurprising double-standard," she deadpanned, eyes hard. "Grow the fuck up, Dominic."_

She had left after that, ignoring him when he called after her. She drove the car back to the garage, handed the keys to Mr. Toretto, finished up her days' worth of work without a word. She told Mr. T she wouldn't be back to work at the garage for a while.

"_I just need some time," she told him._

"_Take all you need." He put a hand on her shoulder. "And for what it's worth, Letty… my son is an idiot."_

"_He is."_

She'd managed to avoid Dom for the next few weeks. Maybe he had been giving her space, but she'd also done everything she could to ensure that there was no chance he could catch her. After school she'd go to Hector's house or borrow someone's car to drive up the coast. She'd outright refused to talk to Mia about it, even though she'd known her friend would back her up. Maybe that had been why. She hadn't wanted to ruin her relationship with her brother.

"_What did Dom do, Letty?" Mia asked her at lunch._

"_It doesn't matter, Mi. We're through, okay? That's it."_

"_No it's not it!" Mia insisted. "He's miserable. And you're meaner than usual. You guys need to work this out."_

"_There's nothing to work out," Letty sighed. "I really wish you'd just leave it alone."_

And Mia had, and Letty tried to move past it. She'd tried not to think about Dom. And she'd realized that she had been avoiding everything she loved because of him. She didn't go to the races. She didn't go to the garage. She didn't go to Mr. Toretto's barbeque every Sunday. Even though Mia had always reminded her that she should come.

And it had pissed her off that she'd let Dom do that to her. She'd wondered why she had to give up things she loved because he had been an idiot.

So of course once she'd realized it she had been determined not to let his presence keep her away.

And so she'd gone to a race one Friday night.

_She didn't bother to tell Mia that she was going or ask if Dom would be there. The point was to prove to herself that she didn't care. So she'd dressed herself up for a night at the races – black leather pants and heeled boots, white lace-up tank top. She bummed a ride off of Hector, glaring at him when he tried to give her awkward sympathy over Dom._

"_Hector, shut up and drive," she muttered._

"_Yeah okay," he agreed. "I'm not good at that shit."_

"_You're definitely not."_

_They made the rest of the drive in silence and Letty slid out of the car when Hector parked._

"_Hey," he said, getting out of the driver's side. "Want me to stick close?"_

_She rolled her eyes. "I can take care of myself Hector. I don't need a guard dog." She smirked. "Besides, Dom would kick your ass."_

_He sighed. "Yeah but you know, I had to offer."_

"_Yeah thanks, whatever." She rolled her eyes and wandered off._

When Letty looked back on it now she realized that a part of her had wanted Dom to be there. Had wanted to see him. Had wanted to know if Mia had been telling the truth and he was miserable without her. Sixteen-year-old her had thought it would have served him right. But sixteen-year-old her had missed him too.

Hadn't just missed her boyfriend, but had missed her friend. Had missed someone she could be herself with, who she could be silly around and not always worry about being the tough girl with. Missed having that person who understood her need for the adrenaline rush and the way she felt at home around cars.

_She didn't exactly make it hard for Dom to find her. Not that she went looking for him, but she didn't hide herself away either. She had come here to see the cars and to watch the racing, and damn if she wasn't going to do just that._

_She was talking to a guy about his modified Mazda when his gaze drifted over her shoulder and she knew that it was Dom there. The guy, whose name she hadn't bothered to ask – more interested in the car than him, had made himself scarce rather quickly._

_She turned, raising a brow slowly, arms coming up to cross over her chest defensively._

_She was ready for a fight, but Dom just looked resigned._

"_Couldn't stay away for long, huh?"_

"_I loved cars way before I met you, Dom," she said. "Why wouldn't I be here?"_

"_You weren't here the last three weeks. And you've been avoiding me. You haven't come to the garage."_

_She shrugged her shoulders, not interested in explaining herself to him._

"_Letty, won't you give me a chance to explain?"_

"_Explain what?" she asked. "I seem to remember we weren't in a relationship to begin with. So there's nothing to talk about."_

_He rubbed a hand over his face, looking uncomfortable as hell. "Okay that's… not really what I wanted," he muttered. "I was… I made a mistake." He glanced around. "Can we talk about this somewhere else please?"_

_She raised her brows. "Why? Those skanks over there near the Nissan seem really interested in what you're about to tell me."_

_Dom glanced over at the girls in question, who hastily looked away, as if they had not been obviously eavesdropping. He looked back at Letty who was looking at him expectantly._

"_Did you have something to say or not, Dominic?" she asked._

_He sighed, perhaps realizing that she wasn't going to give an inch in this case. He'd have to accept it, since he was the one who had fucked up._

"_Okay, fine," he said. "Look, Letty I've never been… serious about a girl before. Part of it was that… I wasn't thinking. I was just doing what I'd always done."_

_She raised a brow, her mouth opening in aggravation._

"_Let me finish," he said softly and she closed it again. "And that's not an excuse by any means. I wasn't expecting to feel the way I felt about you… not ever. I wasn't expecting it to be so damn scary."_

"_How did that lead to you fucking some other girl, Dom?" she asked._

"_I guess I was trying to prove to myself that I didn't…"_

"_That you didn't what?" she demanded, stepping into his personal space. "That you didn't care? That you weren't scared of being in a damn relationship? So instead of talking to me and maybe figuring shit out you go and do that?"_

_She noticed then that they'd attracted somewhat of a crowd and it pissed her off, suddenly that they all knew. That they all knew Letty hadn't been any different from the rest of the girls to parade through Dom's life. She stepped back and turned away, wanting to get away from him and this._

_His hand closed over her bicep, grip firm though gentle. _

"_Letty, please don't walk away," he said softly. "Give me another chance."_

"_Why should I?"_

"_Because… because I love you."_

I love you. He'd told her those words in front of dozens of people. In front of their friends. In front of the skanks. Dom… who'd been too scared to be faithful because he couldn't handle how he felt. He'd admitted it in front of LA's street racing world because he wanted her back.

And she'd turned around. She'd given him that second chance.

Obviously.

And he'd always told her that he loved her. Even when they fought. She could remember even when they'd been far apart. He'd call her late at night from some other country just to whisper into the phone that he loved her.

She'd also made it clear she wouldn't stand for any other transgressions. Oh, he'd flirted. And she'd growled about it. But that was as far as it went. When they were together (and oh they hadn't always been), then that was it. No exceptions.

She remembered what she'd said to him…

"_There are no third chances here, Dom."_

And maybe she had been right. Maybe their lives had just been a string of second chances. A second chance for them after his mistake. A second chance when she'd lost her memory and nearly died.

It was amazing what love could last through. If you worked at it.

When she'd first remembered this particular fight she'd gotten in her car and driven. It was the natural thing to do when she was stressed or when she had something on her mind. To just drive until she could get her thoughts in order.

This had been such a big thing, the real start of what had been Dom and Letty as they had been. Kicking aside the hurt and stupidity and building something on top of the scars. And somehow making it stronger because of that.

She could appreciate how far they'd come. How different she was from that sixteen-year-old girl. How much she was still the same. How much Dom had grown up in all those years; time spent in prison, years on the run, the shock of losing her.

Those two kids, so wrapped up in their own lives and their own stupid fears and their feelings as if they were the world. They would have never seen it all coming. Maybe if they had they would have turned and run the other way. But she liked to hope not. She liked to think that it had all been worth it, somehow.

That was why even after everything she remembered she started her car and drove back home. Where Dom was waiting for her. Because it was worth it. Even remembering all the awful little things that they'd suffered with throughout their relationship. All the stupid mistakes… all the fights. All the time spent apart.

So why waste the time they had now?

Letty pulled up at the house, parking in the driveway behind the Charger. She could see that the garage door was open and knew before she spotted him that Dom was in there working. He'd heard her pull up and was looking up from his work. Their eyes met and he smiled.

She smiled back.

"Got a lot on your mind?" he asked.

She paused in the garage doorway, looking around. In the months since they'd been home he'd cleaned the place up, tended to the tools. But he'd left the same things hanging on the walls. She could still see the picture of his dad behind him and for a moment she missed him painfully.

"Just thinking about second chances," she told him.

Dom set down the wrench in his hand, crossing towards her. "Seems we've had a few."

"Mmm," she agreed, wrapping her arms around him. "Just thinking about our first one."

He drew her closer, pressing his lips to the crown of her hair. "Don't you mean mine? Never realized back then how damn lucky I was. I didn't deserve it."

"Maybe not," she agreed. "Probably not."

He laughed. "So why'd you give it to me?"

"There were a lot of reasons, Dom," she sighed, then grinned. "Remember how long you waited for me to say I loved you back?"

"A year," he muttered. "Drove me crazy."

"I wanted to trust you before I said it," she told him, tilting her head to look up at him. "And when I did then I never looked back. Never stopped trusting you."

He stroked her cheek lightly, fingers catching in her hair. "Not till you forgot me."

"Yeah well. Didn't take you long to earn my trust anyway, hmmm?"

"I jumped off a bridge to catch you," he said with a raise of a brow. "I'd say that was pretty damn impressive."

"It was pretty damn insane," she laughed. "Real Superman shit. I was wondering if you were even real after that."

"All real, baby," he said, cupping her jaw to tilt her head as he leaned in. "And all yours."

She smiled as he kissed her, laughing into his mouth and pushing him back into the garage with a wicked grin. "You better not forget it."


	17. Chapter 17

Author's Note: Okay this took me a few days to write. I think writing in general is just a struggle with me right now. So I'm still working but don't mind me if updates are a little slower for a while. I have another full week at work coming up and I'm not really sure when it will slow down. This chapter is about Leon and a little peek at his friendship with Letty. He's a little harder to get a grasp on than the others, probably because he only has that small part in the first film. He gets less background than Jesse and Vince. Anyway, I hope I did him some justice. Enjoy!

_Leon_

The first few weeks at home had been strange. Not because she didn't feel at home, because she did. But because even though it felt like home she couldn't remember anything about her life here.

It helped that the first two weeks Mia decided to go on a redecorating binge. Their family had grown and changed and it was time to make the house feel like something more fitting as a place for a baby than a place for booze-filled parties.

Currently Dom and Brian were making a trip to the local thrift shop to unload some of the items that Mia decided she no longer wanted. There was some new furniture now mingled with the old, a big, overstuffed red couch that looked temptingly soft to lie upon was the focal point of the new living room, across from an immense flat-screen television that the boys had purchased and mounted on the wall. They had also set up the surround-sound system.

The old bookshelves had been polished to a shine and Mia had trashed half her old novels. Now the bulk of one shelf was dominated by books about cars, engines and racing. Her medical books took up only one row. She placed all the baby and parenthood literature she'd collected in the remaining spot. The other shelf they used to store all the DVDs and video games. Here and there little knick-knacks Mia found were placed in some artistic way. Letty watched her do it but she still couldn't figure out the trick to it, so she left those items to her friend.

Instead she worked on assembling the desk for the office that the spare room downstairs was going to be converted into. It was quiet in the house with Jack down for his nap, the only sound Mia's soft humming as she worked.

Letty smirked slightly, glancing over at her. "You always do that?"

"Huh?" Mia looked up, sheepish, then grinned. "No. But ever since Jack was born. I guess I just got used to humming to him and now I can't stop."

"Was just wondering if it was something else I couldn't remember."

Mia sat back on the floor where she was organizing photos and paintings for the walls. "Are you worried about the fact that you can't remember things?" she asked.

"It's just weird. There's stuff I should know about you guys… about this place. But I don't."

"It will come back to you," Mia told her. "And it's not like we expect you to know those things. We know you can't remember."

"I don't mean to imply that anyone's been pressuring me…" Letty murmured. "I guess it's just my own frustration."

"Well you remembered that trip to the beach when we were kids, right?"

"Yeah…" She looked up from where she was tightening a screw. "But it's sort of… this disembodied moment. Just floating. I don't remember being that girl. I don't remember anything else about Vince…"

"Other things will start to jog your memories," Mia offered. "We can look at more pictures."

"Looking at pictures is weird. It makes me mad I can't remember what I'm seeing." Letty sighed and shook her head, turning back to the desk. "Not that I expect everything to come back quickly. It's just… frustrating."

"You're used to deal with frustrating," Mia grinned. "Dating my brother for as long as you have."

Letty laughed with her, letting the tension slide out of her shoulders. She had a feeling that Mia was good at that sort of thing… at making people feel better. They both lapsed into a companionable silence as Mia stood up to survey the bare walls. She hung up a couple of photos, then stepped back.

"What do you think?" she asked.

Letty glanced over. The largest picture was an old photo, judging by the faded colors. Letty knew from the albums that the photo was of Dom and Mia's parents on their wedding day, embracing in front of a church, smiling happily. Beside that a pair of smaller images, one of Brian with Mia in his lap and Jack in her arms. It was in a lush green yard that Letty didn't recognize. Above that was a photo that had been taken at the barbeque, everyone gathered, sitting on or around the back stoop, smiling. Their whole family, as untraditional as it was, all gathered together.

Letty couldn't help but smile. "Looks great, Mi."

"Thanks."

Mia spent the next half hour hanging more pictures and décor on the wall and stepping back to critique herself, occasionally asking for Letty's input. She paused in her work to help her friend muscle the desk into the new office, with its freshly painted yellow walls.

Sighing once the heavy item was in place Mia looked over at her. "I think we deserve some lemonade."

"You'd think the guys would be back by now…" Letty commented, following her into the kitchen.

"Knowing them they're goofing off," Mia said, getting out a couple of glasses.

She poured them each a glass and took a small sip of hers before Jack's cries drifted down the stairs. She smiled and set the glass down.

"Mommy duty calls. I'll be right back." She was halfway up the steps when the doorbell rang. "Can you get that?"

"Sure," Letty agreed, heading through the living room.

She stepped over the photos and things Mia still hadn't hung up, moving the box that the desk had come in to the side. She opened the door to find a guy on the other side.

She had no idea who he was, though she could admit that he was very vaguely familiar looking.

"Can I help you?"

"Shit girl," he laughed, looking her over as if he wasn't completely sure she was real.

Letty stared back at him. He was taller than her, though at first glance not taller than Dom and he had a lean muscular sort of build. He wore a black t-shirt and she could just see the edge of some ink along his right bicep under the sleeve. His jeans were faded and ripped up and his beat up black sneakers had seen better days. She raised her gaze to his face where hazel-colored eyes stared back at her, brow furrowed. There was something intelligent about his look, as if he had some sort of insight into her. His jaw was shadowed, unshaven and his brown hair looked in need of a little trim, curling up here and there.

"So I hear not only are you alive, but you got your head rattled," he said, grinning at her. "Seems like they're both true."

She blinked at him, studying him a moment longer as if another look would help her to suddenly remember. Instead there was nothing.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Due to that… head-rattling you mentioned I really have no idea who you are."

He smiled though his eyes looked a little sad for a moment. "Hey, I understand. No problem." He held out his hand. "Leon."

She took his hand, shaking it. "I know the name, at least." She smiled. "Dom and the others have mentioned you."

"Haven't seen them in ages," he muttered. "Saw Mia for your… funeral. Or… whoevers funeral. Damn, that's kind of creepy isn't it?"

"You're telling me," she quipped, stepping back. "Come on in… Mia's just upstairs with the baby."

"Oh right, Dom mentioned that on the phone. Future FBI-agent-slash-criminal baby O'Connor."

"I don't think Mia would be too keen on that title."

"She probably shouldn't have gotten knocked up by the cop then," he said with a grin.

Letty laughed. "Not a cop anymore."

"So just a criminal?" Leon looked around the room. "Redecorating?"

"His record's been cleared." She shrugged, glancing at the box. "Yeah… Mia wanted to fix the place up."

"Kind of weird though," he said. "How much the place still looks the same."

"You'd know better than me." Letty led him into the kitchen. "Want a beer?"

"That would be great," he agreed, leaning against the counter. "So… you don't remember _anything _at all?"

"Barely anything," she told him, popping the tops off a couple of Coronas.

She passed one to him and he took it, raising it to his lips for a swallow. "If you don't remember anything then why stay here?"

She raised a brow, smiling a little. "It's home."

Leon smiled, nodding at the sentiment. He took a drink of his beer and they fell into companionable silence.

"_You know, Dom's a lucky guy."_

Letty blinked over at Leon, confused. "What?"

"I didn't say anything."

_She laughed. "Yeah right. Skill has more to do with him winning all the races than luck does."_

"_I don't mean about that," Leon grinned at her, popping the top off another Corona. Music drifted in from the other room, the chatter of voices. A typical Saturday night at the Toretto house; packed with people partying after a night out on the streets racing._

_Letty arched a brow at Leon. "Then what?"_

"_Having a girl like you," he shrugged and she stared at him in surprise. "Not that he lacks for female interest."_

_She made a face. "No… that's true. You're not coming onto me are you Lee? Because Dom will probably kick your ass out if so."_

"_Yeah I'm gonna ask you to run away with me," he laughed. "Tell you about how I can treat you right and all that shit." He smirked at the look on her face. "C'mon baby girl, nah. You know me. Serious ain't my style and also I like being alive. We're friends though, it's all cool right?"_

_She laughed. "Yeah we're cool." She shook her head. "Why the hell you saying this shit?"_

"_I guess I just feel like you gotta be reminded sometimes." He smiled at her. "Cause everyone sees the way Dom flirts and talks to other girls. But not everyone sees that don't mean shit. They don't know there's no better girl for him than you."_

_Blushing slightly, Letty ducked her head. "Yeah yeah okay, quit it with the sappy shit."_

"_Hey I'm not done." Leon set down his beer and she looked up at him. "I'm not going to tell you some hollow BS like you're so hot and sexy even if I think it's true." He wisely took a step back from her narrow-eyed look. "It's more that you don't let that shit be what defines you, ya know? Like too many of the racer sluts they have no substance. I'm not saying I need a chick that knows shit about cars and drives with skill, but having a girl around who can hold an intelligent conversation…"_

_Letty laughed. "That never seemed to be one of your standards before."_

"_Yeah okay you got me there…" Leon admitted. "But that doesn't work when you're actually trying to go out on a date as opposed to just getting some."_

_Letty rolled her eyes. "So you want someone you can date?"_

"_Maybe… I guess I think about it. Sometimes."_

"Ever find yourself that date?" Letty asked, raising the beer to her lips.

Leon stared at her, blinking. He laughed. "I guess you could say so," he agreed. "Been seeing this girl. Met her in Jamaica. You'd like her."

"Oh yeah, why's that?"

"She doesn't take any shit," he said with a laugh.

"So why's she dating you?" Letty asked, raising a brow.

"Harsh girl!" Leon smirked. "Nice to see you haven't forgotten that sharp tongue of yours."

"I didn't lose my personality, Leon," she muttered.

He grinned, putting his arm around her shoulders. "I'm glad. I'm glad we didn't lose you, Letty."

"At least not all of me." She smiled a little. "Just pieces."

"You'll get them back," he assured.

Letty smiled, looking over when Mia appeared in the kitchen doorway. The other woman looked surprised, holding Jack against her hip. Then she grinned broadly.

"Leon!" She hurried across the room to hug him. "What are you doing here?"

"Wanted to come and see everyone." Leon smiled, returning the hug. "I spoke to Dom a couple weeks ago, got the rundown. Said I might come by. Thought maybe I could help around here… with whatever."

Mia drew back. "Well we're doing some work on the house and I wouldn't mind the help, especially with the guys disappearing for hours."

"Where the hell are they anyway?" Letty asked.

"I called Brian after I got Jack up from his nap. Apparently they decided to race on the way to the thrift shop and they… got pulled over and got ticketed so you know, typical with the two of them."

Letty and Leon both shook their heads, laughing.

"Did they ever get to the shop?" Letty inquired.

"They were there when I called so they should be home soon." She looked at the clock. "And I should get dinner started." Mia passed Jack over to Letty, who took him, then smiled at Leon. "You'd better be planning to stay for a while. We don't have an extra room right now, but you know you're welcome to crash on the couch."

"Yeah of course," Leon smiled. "I was planning to stick around for a while."

"Good. Mia wants to paint the whole damn house," Letty told him as she sat at the table with Jack.

Mia grinned and moved to the fridge. "You can hardly blame me. We'll be glad for the help, Leo."

"And hey," he said, sitting at the table as well. "Maybe I can help Letty get some more of her memories back."

"How are you going to do that?" Mia asked. "Tell her stories about all the stupid shit you guys did back then?"

"Maybe." He grinned. "I've got lots of stories."

"The look in your eye says you're going to embarrass me," Letty told him, looking wary.

He laughed. "Probably."

"Oh like the time you guys got her drunk and made her do karaoke?" Mia asked.

"That was totally Dom's idea by the way!" Leon told her, holding up his hands in innocent surrender.

"I'm so sure," Letty deadpanned. "What else?"

"Well there was the time I walked in on you and Dom in the living room," he grimaced. "I wish I could expunge that from _my_ memory."

"Who hasn't done that?" Mia muttered, making a face.

"Not that I minded seeing _you _naked," Leon supplied. "I just didn't want to know Dom that well."

"Gee thanks," Letty replied, eyes narrowed. "That makes me feel better."

"I think you'd better stop talking, Leon," Mia told him. "Or she's going to go over there and kick you in the face."

Leon took a sip of his beer, then smiled at her across the table. "Dom's a lucky man. Still is, no doubt. Not everyone gets a second chance with their perfect girl."

Letty found she was looking forward to remember just exactly who that girl was.


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since I've updated guys. I've actually been trying to work on this for about a week, but I've been pretty tired and it's been taking me longer to write. This chapter is about a memory mentioned in an earlier chapter. Dom and Letty's first kiss. Enjoy!

_The First One_

Love at first sight was so cliché.

But what about love at first race?

Now that she could remember Letty knew it was true that a little part of her had started to fall in love with Dom the first time she'd seen him pull that crazy stunt just to impress her.

And every time she watched him drive she felt that same little thrill in her heart, that same little tug. That was not to say that racing or driving was the only thing about Dom that she loved. There was no way she would have stayed with him as long as she had, no way she would have put up with some of his shit if it was only cars that bound them together.

No, it was a hell of a lot deeper than that.

But it had started out simple. Two kids, not worried about their futures, not thinking that their lives were going to change. No idea that one day they'd be on the run, or that their love for adrenaline would push them so far that they'd almost die, that they'd almost lose one another. That they wouldn't be able to go home.

That she would forget he'd ever existed.

Two kids who shared a passion for cars. Who grew up in the same neighborhood in LA, who'd seen hard times, seen their families struggle, lost people they'd loved. Two kids who got into fights, who got into trouble, who sometimes forgot to think before they leapt.

They had been so much alike, the two of them, always. Shared the same desires, liked the same things, had the same kind of friends. They'd breathed the same air, inhabited the same space, lived in the same world.

When weekend nights were spent out on the streets surrounded by fast cars or at house parties where the beer flowed free. Definitely what could be deemed as simpler times.

Before the hijackings, before a certain undercover cop named Brian O'Connor. Before fleeing across the border, before they lost Jesse and Vince, before she lost herself…

Sometimes Letty could feel the echo of her old life all around her. She could see it in the weathered old garage out back, her memory overlaying the image of Dom, younger than he was now, laughing with a man, his dad. She could see Mia kneeling by the side of the house, planting flowers in the garden. She could see Dom, Leon, Vince and Jesse gathered around the table in the yard, beers in hand, talking, probably talking cars.

There was so much history here, in this house. It was home. She knew it for certain now as she stood out on the back steps, hand resting idly against the railing. The sun was setting overhead, painting the sky all shades of orange and red. A faint breeze drifted in the air, carrying with it the smell of smoke and the taste of dust as it ruffled her long hair. Letty leaned into it, her eyes falling shut.

She rested her arms against the railing, feeling the warm wood beneath her skin.

_She could hear the music drifting out through the closed door, and the chatter of voices. The bass pounded a beat along to her heart, the dying echoes of an adrenaline rush from that night's race. She took a sip of her beer, Corona. Way better than the shit she'd had to drink before, though part of her still found it pretty disgusting._

_She couldn't see any lingering traces of sun in the sky – it had set long ago. And here in LA there were no stars to find through all the smog and light pollution. The sky was an ink-stained midnight, hazy with a yellowed moon hanging high behind a whisper of clouds. _

_The night was cool, fall was creeping in on Southern Cali with its usual slowness, a lingering heat from the sun during the day, but the nights grew cooler. Still, dressed in her black jeans and red racer-back tank top, Letty wasn't feeling too much of a chill. It was a nice change from the stuffiness of inside, packed with dancing bodies and drunks._

_The door behind her clicked and swung open and Letty lifted her head. The shape of Dominic Toretto filled the doorway, distinct enough for her to recognize even though Letty had only known him for a handful of days now. She watched as he pulled the door closed behind him and lowered himself to sit beside her._

"_Hiding out?" he asked._

_Her lips turned up in a small grin. "Some chick was puking into your sink. I needed some fresh air after that."_

"_Oh great," he muttered, rolling his eyes heavenward for a moment. Then he glanced over at her. "You never told me what got you into cars."_

_She sighed, tugging a hand through her hair, shot him a grin. "Nothing exciting. My dad always liked cars. Knew shit about engines. He'd let me help out fixing up our old sedan when I was a kid. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Guess you could say it's in my blood."_

"_I know what you mean," he agreed. "My dad is the reason I'm into cars too."_

"_He's a racer, isn't he?"_

_He grinned. "I see you've heard."_

"_Please, you're what everyone in that house is talking about, especially the girls."_

_Dom laughed, shrugging with the ease of a guy who knew he had attention and who liked it that way. Letty wanted to roll her eyes. "They can talk," he said. "But I'm not talking to them, am I?"_

_She raised a brow. "Is that supposed to be some sort of pick-up line?" She smirked._

"_No, just the truth. I already know how pick-up lines work on you," he replied._

_Letty laughed. "Then why you talking to me? You just like a challenge?"_

"_Can't deny that I do, but maybe it's just because you're interesting. Because you got things to say that other girls don't. Your eyes aren't going to glaze over if I start talking about my dream engine or all the mods I got on my ride."_

"_Just like another one of the guys," she said with a grin._

_Dom laughed. "No… not really. Not at all." _

_He reached out to tangle his fingers in her hair, hand and arm brushing against the curve of her shoulder and she went still, lashes lifting to gaze at him with dark eyes, as if trying to read him, to figure out what his motives were._

_His other thumb feathered over her jaw, a smile tugging at his lips. "You have these eyes. Like they're looking right through me."_

_She smiled back. "Yeah, they can see through bullshit," she muttered._

"_What do they see right now?" he murmured, leaning close so she could feel his breath against her mouth._

"_You're taking way too long to kiss me," she replied and leaned up._

_She tasted the faint hint of beer on his tongue as her lips parted against his. She could feel his hand cupping the back of her head as she scraped her teeth over his lower lip. He rumbled a moan into her mouth as she curled her tongue into his to taste him._

Letty could remember their first kiss like it was yesterday; the taste of Dom, which had become so familiar to her by now. The taste of the Corona on his lips, the feel of his hand on her thigh and the music drifting out of the house behind them.

She could remember that he'd pulled back and smiled at her, tugged at a lock of her hair and asked her what kind of tires she liked best for racing.

She'd laughed and they'd sat out there for hours, talking, ignoring the party inside, wrapped up in their own little world. He'd kissed her again that night on the porch. She'd kissed him too, sat with him there until the sun started to come up, chasing her home to sneak inside before her mother woke up. Leaving Dom with the promise that he'd see her again.

Just two kids, with everything in common, sharing a first kiss under the night sky.

They weren't kids anymore. They weren't even the same people anymore. It jarred her how much she had changed. Part of that because she'd forgotten and then slowly rebuilt her past. But most of it because of all that had happened to her after she'd met Dom. Not that she would have blamed him for it. She'd always made her own choices. No one made them for her.

Just like she'd made the choice to come back home with him. And now she had all these memories back. She felt like Letty again.

She was still leaning against the railing when the door swung open and Dom stepped out of the house. Their eyes met and he smiled.

"Hiding out here?" he asked.

She laughed, shaking her head. Dom stepped up beside her, one arm sliding around her waist and she leaned into him.

"Just thinking."

"What about?" he asked.

She turned, back to the railing to look up at him. "Remember the first time we sat out on this stoop till 5 am?"

Dom slid his hands down to rest on her hips, smiling at her. "Of course. Guessing you do too, now."

She nodded, her hands coming up to cup his face. Dom leaned in and she pressed herself up on her toes, pressing her lips against his. They curled into a grin and she laughed as he pulled her closer. He still tasted like Dom, but today there was no beer on his lips, yet. Kissing him was like coming home. It was like memories of the past rolled up with her future.

"I love you," he murmured against her lips.

She kissed him again.


	19. Chapter 19

Author's Note: This is a light, sweet and funny sort of chapter. This is another one centering around the friendship between Letty and Mia. Dedicated to MiaToretto86 who was having a crappy day. I am planning to do some with Letty's first meeting of Jesse and Leon, as well as some memories of Mr. Toretto and the Sunday barbeques. And of course, always more Dom/Letty. Enjoy!

In Need of Convincing

_A typical night at the races._

_Crowds, cars, music in the air, the faint smell of somebody's joint. Girls everywhere, some dressed in barely anything… most dressed in barely anything. It was so typical. _

_Letty supposed they did it to try and compete against the flashy cars, to get the attention of the boys, whether they arrived with them to the races or they were just looking for someone to go home with. In either case she found it annoying, as many of the girls were looking to go home with her boyfriend, despite knowing very well that he was not available._

_Oh he flirted. But she'd have killed him if it went any further than that. She'd already made that more than clear. _

_No third chances._

_Letty didn't really want to feel like she was competing with the racer sluts, but she also wasn't going to show up to the races without looking her best either. _

_She'd let Mia convince her into a mini skirt – black denim with a frayed hem. She wore a silver chain belt with it and short black boots. Her top was a simple deep purple tank with a low neckline that she'd layered over a black one. _

_Mia's skirt was slightly shorter, a faded blue denim and the only reason she'd gotten away with wearing it out of the house was that Letty had driven her to the races tonight and they'd left later than the boys. She wore a tiny top with skinny straps and a pair of wedge heels. _

"_You must be trying to get picked up, girl," Letty had commented, eyeing her as they pulled up at the meeting place._

"_I am. It's been ages since I've dated."_

"_That would be because of your brother and Vince. They scare away any guy who might be interested."_

"_I know!" Mia groaned. "You have to help me out here, Letty."_

"_What the hell am I supposed to do?" She asked, climbing out of the car._

"_I dunno use your feminine charms on my brother and get him to lay off a little bit."_

"_That's rich," Letty muttered. "Even if I could convince Dom, and there's no guarantee of that… Vince is another story."_

"_Please, you boss him around all the time."_

"_He has a crush on you, Mi. I can't boss him out of that." Letty laughed._

_Mia groaned and dropped her head. "I wish you could."_

_Letty glanced up from where she was leaning against her car just in time to catch a couple of guys strolling towards them. She didn't recognize either one, but she could definitely read the interest in their eyes. They weren't bad looking, she supposed, but she sighed internally. _

"_Looks like you got your wish," she muttered to Mia as the guy came to a stop in front of them._

"_Hey ladies," one of them said, smiling in a charming manner._

"_Hi," Mia said, smiling back and standing up straighter. "Haven't seen you guys around a race before."_

"_We're new to the area," he replied moving to stand between them. "Thought we'd come out and make some friends."_

_Letty raised a brow. "You race?"_

"_Sometimes," he replied. "That's my ride over there."_

_When he pointed Letty turned her interest to the car. A suped up Mitsubishi, painted bright yellow and fitted with a spoiler. Pretty typical of this scene. Not all that interesting to her._

_But apparently something about this guy was interesting to Mia, because she was laughing at whatever he'd said. Letty would guess it had something to do with his boy-next-door looks. She pushed herself off the hood of the car to give them some space, only to find herself face-to-face with his friend._

"_The name's Cameron," he said, offering her his hand._

_Letty shook it. "Letty," she replied, taking a short step backwards as she released his hand._

"_Letty," he repeated. "Cute…" he grinned. "Like you."_

_She fought the urge to roll her eyes, raising a brow instead._

"_What's going on here?"_

_It was Dom's voice that interrupted the scathing reply sitting on her tongue and Letty turned to see him coming to a stop beside her. He didn't look pleased._

"_Some new guys came to introduce themselves," she offered, trying not to bristle at the possessive way Dom put his arm around her._

_It wasn't like she'd been flirting after all, something which Dom was known to do constantly._

"_Well seems you've had time to say hello," Dom said. "Now it's time to say goodbye."_

"_Dom!" Mia hissed as the guys took the hint and backed off, heading for easier pickings amongst the dozens of sluts gathered around. "That was so rude! They were nice."_

"_You don't know anything about those idiots," he replied, then looked down at Letty. "And why were you talking to them?"_

"_Give me a break," she muttered, stepping away from him irritably. "I was just talking, Dom. You know better."_

"_Letty was just talking to James' friend while I got to know him," Mia replied airily. "Until you scared them away!"_

"_Why do you need to get to know James?" Dom asked._

"_Because I'm twenty years old and I should be allowed to get to know a guy!" Mia complained._

"_She's right, you know," Letty agreed, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're smothering her, Dom."_

"_I'm just looking out for her," Dom insisted._

"_You're looking out so much that the only guys she even talks to are your friends. What, you want her to end up dating V? Because that's what you're sticking her with."_

_Dom grimaced. "Hell no…"_

_Mia's look mirrored his. _

"_So let her go talk to those guys," Letty continued, turning her gaze to her boyfriend. She offered him a smile, teeth biting down on her lower lip. "She'll be right over there. Completely within sight."_

"_Please," Mia added, looking up at him hopefully._

_Dom sighed, rubbing a hand over the top of his head, looking between the two of them. "Fine. Fine. Go before I change my mind…" he muttered._

_Mia squeaked in delight, grinning at her friend before she hurried off._

Letty could feel the warm wood of the bench beneath her bare legs, where she sat in shorts and a t-shirt, sunglasses on against the strong sun. Mia sat beside her, looking lovely in a sundress she'd thrown on that morning. Jack in his baby carriage was sleepily playing with a rattle. Mia pushed the carriage back and forth; slowly lulling him into the sleep he seemed insistent on fighting.

"What ever happened to that James guy?" Letty wondered suddenly, still half-caught in the innocuous memory.

Mia looked at her in surprise, then laughed. "You'll remember eventually… but we went out a couple of months, but we didn't really click…"

"He sucked in bed didn't he?" Letty asked.

"The worst," Mia agreed with a smirk. "But he was a nice guy. We did some fun stuff. He drove me up to the hills on a weekend to go hiking. And we spent a long weekend at Lake Tahoe."

"I can't believe Dom let you go," Letty laughed.

"Your doing, as usual." Mia grinned at her. "Well, you just buttered him up and got him all agreeable then I only had to make puppy eyes."

They both laughed and Mia looked over to see that her son was sleeping peacefully. She stood.

"Come on, let's head back," she said.

Together they took the path through the park back to the sidewalk and turned down to walk back to their house.

"You did it with Brian too, you know?" Mia asked after they'd walked in silence for a bit.

"Hmm?" Letty asked, arching a brow.

"Got Dom to lay off when we first started seeing each other." Mia grinned slightly. "Of course, then it turned out he was an undercover cop."

"Doesn't sound like I was doing you any favors, girl."

"Nah c'mon. It worked out." Mia smiled down at her sleeping baby. "Even though it took us five years after you guys went on the run to reconnect."

"True he was a cop, but Brian was always a good guy, Mia."

"You mean different from my previously usual type?" she asked with a grin.

"Uh, no," Letty snorted. "You _always _fell for the good guys. The boy next door, type. You just had to find one with a little criminal tendency so he wouldn't suck in the sack."

"Oh, is that what it is?" Mia laughed. "A little bad behavior to make life interesting?"

"Uh, hell yeah," Letty said. "That's like my motto."

"One only has to look back at your life to figure that one out," Mia agreed. "And your choices in men."

"Choices? You're talking about your brother there."

"My brother he may be but you have a thing for bad boys, Leticia." Mia laughed as Letty punched her in the arm lightly.

She smiled at her. "Yeah but he's a good guy too," she said softly.

Mia nodded in agreement as they walked back up their block. They could see the bright red flowering bushes Mia had planted the month before from here. The lawn was tamed again, the house and mailbox repainted. It almost looked like new.

"You know he'd do anything for you," Mia told her friend, glancing at her out of the corner of her eye.

"I got that when he pulled impossible stunts to save my life on more than one occasion." She smiled wryly. "Even when I couldn't remember him."

Mia smiled back, pushing the carriage up to the back door where she moved to carefully lift the still-sleeping Jack out.

"So I want you to keep that in mind when I try to convince him that I need new cabinets and counters in the kitchen," she added seriously, nodding her head sagely.

She carried the baby inside and Letty stared after her in stunned silence for a moment.

"Mia!" She laughed, before heading inside as well.

"Well you know he'd do anything for you," her friend's voice drifted from the stairs. "And it's not even a matter of life or death!"

Letty shook her head with a grin. She loved her family. Every crazy one of them.


	20. Chapter 20

Author's Note: Okay so this one is about Mr. Toretto and a glimpse at Letty's relationship with him. There's some Dom/Letty at the end and I'm sorry if it's a little sappy. Ugh. Just hit me or something. LOL But it is also a bit sad because we address a bit of Letty's issues with her mother here, so be prepared. Anyway, enjoy guys!

_Sunday Barbeque_

The smell of roasting meat was competing with the smog clogging the air. Music drifted from the open door, as it swung shut behind Mia. She carried a bowl over to the table. Letty was at the grill and smiled over at her friend. The boys were in the garage, probably arguing over which type of vehicle they were going to show Jack how to build first.

The smell triggered a memory more ingrained in her than many others. Family barbeques had been a fixture in her life for as long as she had known the Torettos. For as long as she had been with Dom. It was something that always made her look forward to Sundays. Even now she had grown into the habit of looking forward to the gatherings every week. Most weeks Roman and Tej would be there. Han would call from Tokyo to catch them when they were altogether. Gisele's absence was felt in every one of his words. Dom was worried about him, though he wouldn't say as much to the others.

But another effect of the Sunday ritual was that she at times keenly felt the absence of another family member. One who had been gone for much longer. When he'd been alive Mr. Toretto had always been a presence. A force of nature.

She could still taste his famous barbeque sauce. A sharp tang with a little bite of red pepper and the sweetness of brown sugar. Mr. T used to make a big jar of it all at one time and keep it in the fridge for a month.

_Today she was assisting the family's patriarch in the kitchen, currently on the unenviable task of peeling potatoes. But she found she didn't really mind. She liked spending time with Mr. Toretto._

"_Thanks for the help, Letty. With Mia at this study group the cooking is all up to me. You know the boys are useless."_

_She laughed. "No problem. Though it seems like at the very least they would be able to do the menial labor."_

"_Yeah but then I'd have to listen to them whine…"_

_She shook her head. "I always knew boys were big babies."_

"_At least those two boys."_

"_Would you say Vince or Dom is the bigger complainer?" she asked with a grin._

"_I'd venture it depends on the day."_

_She laughed, quartering another potato and dropping it into the huge pot full of water. They worked together in comfortable silence for a while. She could hear Dom and Vince in the yard, talking and laughing. They were responsible for the grill, but she half-doubted they were actually doing anything. Or at least anything food related._

_Still, moments like this made her feel peaceful. It was all so… normal. Making dinner with the people she considered her family. Her mother never dragged her ass into the kitchen these days, unless it was for a refill on her wine. She hadn't made a family meal since before her father had died and Letty could count on one hand the number of times her mother had actually spent a minute of time with her teaching her anything. Even something as simple as a damn potato salad._

_Dom and Mia hardly realized how lucky they were to have their Dad. _

_She was startled out of her thoughts by a hand on her shoulder and she almost dropped the potato in her hand. She looked up, her expression sheepish._

"_Sorry," she said with a smile. "I guess my mind wandered."_

"_I noticed there, kiddo," he replied, reaching for the huge basin full of corn on the cob that had been soaking in their husks for hours._

_She knew that he would grill them and slather them with butter and cayenne pepper and top them with crumbled__ cojita__ cheese. It was one of her favorite foods that Mr. T made at his barbeques._

"_You looked a little sad. Something on your mind?" he asked, hefting the basin out of the sink._

_He was a tall man, and she could look at him and see a lot of what Dom would look like some day – all broad shouldered with big hands. But for some reason his physique was always comforting rather than intimidating. Though she had no doubt that he could have been intimidating if he wanted to._

"_Just thinking about how I never did this kind of thing with my own family…" she replied with a shrug, brushing it off. "I mean… I got a better relationship with you than with my own mom. Kind of sad, ain't it?"_

"_Do you wish you had a better relationship with your mother, Letty?"_

"_Wouldn't matter if I did. She doesn't want to get sober long enough for that to work out." She kept her eyes on the knife as she spoke, tracking the monotonous motion of cutting the potato. _

_She dropped it into the pot and then lifted it to the stovetop, switching on the burner._

"_Has she been through rehab?"_

"_Twice when my Dad was still alive," Letty replied, drying her hands on a dishtowel. "But she's gotten so good at being a functional drunk she's convinced herself she doesn't have a problem." _

_His hand came to rest on her shoulder again, and he didn't say anything about how she should be patient with her mom. About how she should forgive her because she was still her mom. Real mothers didn't hurl abuse at you ever time you crossed their path. Real mothers didn't blame their children for their own problems. They didn't pass out on the couch next to a pile of puke that you'd have to clean up when you got home from high school. Real mothers didn't make their sixteen year old daughters take care of them._

_Real mothers told their children that they loved them._

_She couldn't remember the last time she'd heard those words out of Rosario Ortiz's mouth, to be honest._

_Letty rubbed a stubborn arm over her face. "Can you give me some onions or something to cut because I really don't want to admit that she gets to me."_

"_There's nothing wrong with that," he assured, wrapping her up in those big arms and pulling her into a hug._

_She held on and she closed her eyes and she felt safe and she felt loved. This was her family right here. Mr. Toretto, Dom and Mia and even Vince. She didn't need love from some alcoholic who had contributed to half her genetics._

Letty stared down at the meat roasting on the grill, her gaze focusing on nothing. The smell of Mr. T's famous barbeque drifted up to her nose. Only this time, Mia was the one who had made it, from a faded recipe card she'd pulled out of a box.

Mr. Toretto was gone, but she lingered a moment in the memory of his big, comforting embrace and blinked tears from her eyes.

This remembering thing was making her so damn emotional and that didn't piss her off as much as it once would have. She was mad suddenly, that she'd lost two fathers, and her mother was still alive, in some rehab facility that Letty had once felt obligated to stuff her in, once she'd gotten older and money hadn't been as tight. She wondered if the woman had even noticed when her daughter had supposedly died.

She hadn't visited her since she'd been back… hadn't called. Hadn't even thought about it really.

What she wouldn't have given to have one more conversation with Mr. Toretto though. To thank him for everything he'd done for her. For welcoming her into his house, into his family. To tell him how much she missed him.

She looked up to find Dom standing next to her, his back to her as he said something to Brian. She smiled a little and turned her attention back to the meat, then laughed when his arm came around her shoulders, pulling her close for a hug, which she allowed.

"Still trying to sell Jack on building a Charger?" she asked.

"Hey, if I have my way it'll be his first word," he replied, pressing a kiss against the top of her head.

"If it is I'll kill you," Mia said from the table. "His first word is going to be Mama."

Letty smiled to herself, turning her attention back to the grill as Mia disappeared back into the house with Brian on her heels. She looked up at Dom, thoughtful expression on her face.

"Is it because that was something you shared with your Dad?" she asked. "Building the Charger? Maybe if you explain it to them…"

He grinned, a sort of expression on his face, as if amazed by how well she could still read him. Even without all her memories. His hand cupped her shoulder, stroking her bare arm.

"Nah… that's something Brian and Jack gotta do together. Can't take that away from him." He sighed. "Brian didn't have a good relationship with his own Dad, you know? But he wants to have one with his son."

She smiled, finding the sentiment sweet, and knowing that in his own way, Dom was trying to offer guidance to his friend. If Brian had no relationship with his Dad, odds were he didn't really know how to be one.

But Dom did, because he'd had the best relationship with his father. Because he'd had the best father.

She wrapped her free arm around him.

"Hey," she mumbled, tilting her head to glance up at him. "Would you mind if we drove over to the cemetery after dinner?"

"Sure. We can go."

"I just… I miss him. Your Dad."

"I miss him too, Let."

"I know you do," she agreed. She bit down on her lower lip lightly, using the tongs to flip the ribs on the grill. "I'm pissed he's gone. But we were lucky for all the days we had him in our lives."

He pulled her close, silent as he held her. Comfort in his big arms around her.

"He lives on, in you… in Mia… even in little Jack." She lifted her head to look at him. "You know that right?"

He grinned down at her, tugged a lock of her hair. "Yeah, I know. And in our Sunday barbeques."

She smiled back turning back to the food and she knew he was right. He lived on in all of them, and the memories they had of him.


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Note: Okay soooo it's been a while since I wrote for anything. I apologize. It's just been harder for me to write lately, so expect updates to take longer. I'm sorry but I'm still writing. This chapter is about how Jesse and Leon came to join the team. I know in the first movie Mia attributed it to Dom and it still is, but I wanted to put my own spin on it, so I came up with this idea. Hope you guys like it!

_An Introduction_

They were a team. She'd been a part of that team before she could remember, quite literally. When she'd been in London, working with Shaw she'd been part of a crew. But it wasn't like being part of a team. Like being a part of a family. A family she'd been welcomed back into without a second thought. Even though she'd shot Dom. Even though she'd done some other questionable things while she'd been working with Shaw. Bad things. Worse things than she'd ever done before.

And there were times when she was trying to sleep, staring at the ceiling in the dark, listening to the sound of her own breathing, or Dom's breathing, or both of them breathing. Sometimes late at night she could hear Jack fussing as Mia soothed him. The comforting sounds of the city around her; night insects, the distant wail of sirens, the occasional voice of one of the neighbors. Her mind would wander, unable to quiet, unable to sleep. Memories flitted to the surface, old ones and new ones. Warring in her mind. Trying to tell her who she was.

Who was Letty Ortiz?

She didn't really know, if she was honest. She was starting to remember things, get pieces of herself back. But she didn't feel whole. And she had a hard time trying to blend the Letty she'd become, running with Shaw, to the Letty she'd been before she'd lost her memories.

It helped that she had people around her that she remembered. People that she trusted and loved. Her team. Her family.

She rolled over in bed, studying Dom's sleeping face in the faint streetlight that drifted through the blinds of the window. He looked relaxed in his sleep, at ease in a way he didn't when he was awake. When she could see the wheels in his head constantly turning. For Dom everything he did was about keeping his family safe. His team safe.

He wasn't always able to do it. They'd lost Gisele getting Mia back from Shaw, a loss suffered in the quest for Dom to get her back. To get back the woman he loved. The woman he'd thought was dead. It made her feel guilty, to know when she heard the sadness in Han's voice on the other end of the phone. Han, who'd become a part of their family that first time in Mexico. Not too long after they'd lost Jesse. After Leon had taken off.

They had been family too. But they were gone now. Like they were always doomed to lose the people they cared about. Just like Dom had thought he'd lost her.

She could feel the weight of his arm curled around her waist, the warmth of his skin against hers. She listened to the steady sound of his breathing, curling closer to him. Rested her head against his chest where she could hear the beat of his heart. He stirred beneath her, a sigh feathering against her hair, the arm around her waist tightening just slightly. Reluctant to let her go, even in his sleep.

She let her eyes fall shut, willing her mind to stop wandering. Her body felt weary but her thoughts wouldn't quiet. She concentrated on Dom's warmth beneath her, the way his chest moved with his breathing. The curl of his fingers against her hip, the soothing feeling of lying there with him in bed, in _their_ bed.

_She was curled up in the bed she'd shared sometimes with Dom before his dad had passed away. The bed that had become hers the day Dom had gone to Lompoc. It was just after 9pm and she'd retreated to the privacy of the bedroom after Mia had passed the phone off to her. Dom usually called every other day, maybe every day when he was going through a rough time. Sometimes he didn't talk to Vince, sometimes he didn't talk to Mia, but he always made sure to save at least five minutes to talk to her. Sometimes that was the only communication they had, when she was too busy at the garage to get in during weekend visitation hours._

_She hated those weeks. But with just her and Vince working at the garage they happened often._

"_Hey baby," Dom's voice drifted through the phone line, deep and yet hushed as it always was when he called. It wasn't like the phone in the prison was kept in a private area after all._

_She smiled, tucking the phone against her ear as she pulled her knees up against her chest. "Hey Dom."_

"_How you doin'?"_

"_Okay," she said. 'Tired,' she thought. 'Missing you,' followed hotly on its heels, but she held her tongue. Dom was the one locked up. She didn't need to make him feel guilty._

_He was quiet a moment. "My parole hearing is only a six months away," he reminded her._

_Though Dom had been sentenced for three years he'd been up for parole as he approached the end of his second year serving. Good behavior and all that bullshit. She was still afraid to get her hopes up._

"_I know," she tightened her hands on the phone. "We'll be there."_

"_You comin' this weekend?" he asked._

"_I'll try," she promised. She'd missed him the weekend before. She wouldn't miss this one if she had to stay all night at the garage the next few days._

"_Listen," he interrupted her thoughts. "I think you need to hire some more help for the garage."_

"_Dom," she protested. "We can't afford another mechanic." _

_Not while they were trying to keep the garage open and the shop, pay the bills on the house, plus pay off the lawyers and Linder's medical bills. Mr. Toretto's insurance coverage only went so far. The bulk of that had been eaten up by final expenses. Death was a costly thing. In more ways than one._

"_I have a name for you," he continued, as if he hadn't heard her. Stubborn bastard. "Guy I met in here has got a kid… great with math, computers, engines, cars, all that shit. Says he's a good kid, but never finished school. Doesn't have a lot of other options. You could give him a job, room and board."_

_She was silent a moment, dark eyes flicking over the bedroom. She blew a sigh out her nose and lie back on the bed. They did need the help and she really needed someone with more engine expertise than Vince had. He was good for the muscle but he could be a dumbass when it came to the finer points of car maintenance. _

"_Fine," she muttered. "Where do I find this kid?"_

It was true that Dom had always been responsible for bringing the members of their rather unconventional family together. But that didn't mean they all didn't share their own bonds. With her and Vince it had always been that they were the two people who knew Dom the best, who understood his many moods and the things about him that drove them crazy, or caused them heartache. With her and Mia it had always been this bond of sisterhood, the only two women in a house full of boys, united by the man they loved; one as a brother and one as a boyfriend.

It was true that sometimes the sun seemed to rise and set over Dominic Toretto, but there were times when his family had needed to survive without him.

_Letty double-checked the address she'd scrawled on an old receipt as she pulled up in front of the old Spanish-style house. The walls were crumbling, brick showing through the plaster here and there. The front yard was overgrown. The narrow driveway was crammed with cars, most of which looked to be illegally modified. All the windows were open, and the heavy smell of marijuana drifted in the air._

_The neighborhood was a bad one, and Letty briefly wished she'd brought Vince along as backup as he'd suggested. But one of them had to stay at the shop during lunch break with Mia at the community college today. There was no way she was entrusting Vince to doing something that involved talking, even though she was little more diplomatic herself. _

_She stepped out of her car, closing the door behind her, and strolled up the drive slowly. The sound of heavy metal drifted out of one of open windows. She wore her work clothes, an ancient pair of Dom's grey pants – from when he'd been about 15 or so – otherwise it would be falling off her ass. As it was she'd cinched the waist with a black leather belt. She wore a white ribbed tank, stained with grease and oil, with a black zip-up hoodie and her beat-up tan work-boots. _

_There was a rotting old shed in the yard with a big chain and padlock across the door. A smell lingered in the air closer to it, like rotten eggs and the burning scent of bleach cleaner. She narrowed her eyes, pounding up the narrow brick stairs to the side door and knocked loudly._

_The guy who answered the door looked young – sixteen perhaps. Scrawny kid, pale as hell with bloodshot blue eyes and black-painted fingernails. He stared at her and she looked back, raising a brow._

"_I'm looking for Jesse," she said._

_He looked confused, glancing at her, then peeking out of the door as if to make sure she was alone. "Uh… that's me."_

_Letty sighed internally. Dom seriously hadn't been shitting her when he said this guy was a kid. But she'd been one too when Mr. T had first let her come to work in the garage. She'd give him a chance._

"_I'm here about a job." She tucked her hands into her pockets. "Mind if I come in?"_

_He rubbed a hand over his head, through messy brown hair. "Yeah uh… my Dad told me someone might come by." He stepped back to let her in._

_Letty walked into a kitchen that had seen better days. The sink was overflowing with dirty dishes; there were piles of mail on the table next to an overly full ash tray. A half-rolled joint sat out beside it. There were beer bottles – empty, crowding one of the counters. Jesse motioned for her to take a seat, which she did, terribly glad that Mia kept the Toretto's place clean. She had half a mind that it would look similar enough to this if Vince and Dom had been left to their own devices._

"_So…" she began, watching him resume rolling the joint. "Tell me what you know about cars…"_

Turned out the kid, who really had been only sixteen, had known a hell of a lot about cars. About engines. About designing cars. Jesse came with Leon, one of his roommates, knew enough about cars to be useful. And they were both willing to work for next to nothing, and a place to crash. Which helped her out.

She'd had one rule. Pot was fine, but nothing harder than that in the house. No selling either. She'd needed Mia away from the bad shit in this world. If there was one thing she could do for Dom while he was locked up, that had been it.

And Jesse and Leon had become a part of their team, a part of their family. Invaluable at the garage, and loyal to a fault. And once they'd been able to keep up with work at the garage the bills had been paid. Leon and Jesse moved out to their own place.

Dom had come home from prison, and their new family had adjusted. Jesse, and even snarky Leon had taken to him, even bowed beneath his patriarchal presence. They'd followed his lead, put their trust in him. Maybe that was why Leon had left after the disaster of their last hijacking in LA, after Jesse's death.

Some things even the closest of families couldn't weather.

Letty curled her hand around Dom's bicep and held on. Would they be able to live this life that Hobbs had handed back to them. Keep their family together and stay on the right side of the law? Would they be able to live without the adrenaline rush?

Only time would tell.

But for now they had each other. And that was enough.


End file.
